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A DEFENCE of the MOTHER 
CONVERSION AND CREED 

Abraham Lincoln 




A DEFENCE OF LINCOLN'S 

MOTHER, CONVERSION 

AND CREED 

Being an open letter to the author of 

'The Soul^Abraham Lincoln" 

By 
JAMES M. MARTIN 



Second Edition 

Published at Minneapolis 

1921 



.M32 



'^ o o M- o <r 



Nancy Hanks 



THE days of the distaff, the skillet, the Dutch oven, 
the open fireplace with its iron crane, are no 
longer, but homemaking is still the finest of the fine 
arts. Nancy Hanks was touched with the divine atti- 
tudes of the fireside. Loved and honored for her wit, 
geniality and intelligence, she justified an ancestry 
reaching beyond the seas, represented by the notable 
names of Hanks, Shipley, Boone, Evans and Morris. 
To her was entrusted the task of training a giant, in 
whose childhood memories she was hallowed. Of her 
he said, "My earliest recollection of my mother is sit- 
ting at her feet with my sister, drinking in the tales 
and legends that were related to us." To him on her 
deathbed she said, "I am going away from you, Abra- 
ham, and I shall not return, I know that you will be a 
good boy ; that you will be kind to Sarah and to your 
father. I want you to live as I have taught you, and 
to love your Heavenly Father." "All that I am or hope 
to be I owe to my angel mother." (Abraham Lincoln.) 

(From the inscription on inside wall of the 
granite building erected in Hardin County, 
Kentucky, on the site of, and housing, the log 
cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born.) 



Open Letter 



Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 28, 1921. 
Rev. William E. Barton, 
Oak Park, Illinois. 

Dear Sir: I have read with interest your book 
entitled, "The Soul of Abraham Lincoln." The sub- 
ject has been one of absorbing interest to me from my 
boyhood. 

Reared in a Christian home, where the speeches, 
debates, every message, proclamation, and item of per- 
sonal news of our great President was anxiously 
awaited and carefully read and studied by an ardent 
Whig-Republican with real and genuine interest, no 
subsequent environment has caused me to forget those 
early lessons, — my reverence of the soul of Abraham 
Lincoln has grown with my age, and my love of him 
and of every true word written about him increases as 
the years go by. 

(I must crave pardon for this personal tone which 
seems necessary to set forth my interest in the sub- 
ject.) 

I learned in those years, when scarcely ten years of 
age, at my father's fireside, that a mighty leader, an 
incorruptible statesman, had arisen in the land. The 
precept of that home was that Lincoln had come to his 
place in answer to the prayers of God's people, white 
and black, for generations past, and every utterance of 
his, that revealed his own soul, showed his Christian 
belief, or disclosed his faith in an over-ruling Provi- 
dence or dependence upon the God of our nation as 
his personal God, was eagerly noted, and thanks given 
therefor at the family altar. 



The keen sadness of that serious day in April, 1865, 
has never faded from my memory ; I recall my father's 
tears as I, then not quite fourteen, draped my horse in 
black and rode in the solemn funeral procession to 
listen to a funeral oration by the best talent that the 
neighborhood afforded. It was a sad, sad day to 
those who loved Abraham Lincoln as our family truly 
loved him. So I am interested in the subject you 
selected for the title of your work. 

That the soul of Abraham Lincoln was true, honest, 
sincere, loving, devout, free from selfishness, prejudice 
and bias, we then believed, and my father, I know, had, 
from his diligent study of his every utterance available, 
and from testimony of contemporary witnesses — now 
dust — determined that Abraham Lincoln was a true, 
devout, praying Christian, that he loved the Lord his 
God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, and his 
neighbor as himself, and would, I know, have sub- 
scribed to the estimate of Reverend Chiniquy, Lincoln's 
client and fast friend, whom you have quoted appro- 
priately in connection with a remarkable interview at 
the White House, when he said : 

"I found in him the most perfect type of Chris- 
tianity I ever met. Professedly, he was neither a 
strict Presbyterian, nor a Baptist, nor a Methodist ; 
but he was the embodiment of all which is more 
perfect and Christian in them. His religion was 
the very essence of what God wants in man." 

What more could be said except to add the testi- 
mony of another who knew him, and deliberately 
stated in an oration : 

"I present Mr. Lincoln as the best specimen of 
Christian man I have ever encountered in public 
Hfe." 

No miscroscope can add to either of these. 

Eifirht 



In your book you have, with the tradition of sup- 
pressed editions, but for the purpose of argument of 
course, reprinted the objectionable paragraphs in the 
works of Herndon and Lamon, the two famiHar 
friends, wherein they each strove, without success, to 
make his Master appear such a one as he himself was, 
an infidel — and by your definition of "infidel," and the 
many interesting illustrations gleaned from your per- 
sonal experiences in the environment of the wilderness 
(though probably more than fifty years after Lincoln 
had come out of it), you have, I am sure, explained 
away the mistaken charge of infidelity, and shown that 
neither of the friends really meant what he said. The 
reprinting of the charges will, of course, not hurt 
Lincoln any more than the many campaign slanders 
really hurt ; though they pained him, they did no injury 
to the pure soul of their object. 

When I took up your volume, I noticed with joy 
your statement that "This book attempts to be a digest 
of all the available evidence concerning the religious 
faith of Abraham Lincoln. It undertakes also to weigh 
the evidence and to pass judgment, the author's own 
judgment, concerning it. If the reader's judgment 
agrees with the author's, the author will be glad ; but 
if not, at least the facts are here set forth in their full 
essential content." (The italics are, of course, my 
own.) 

This promise, I soon found with regret, was very 
far from being kept. Many facts and much evidence, 
first hand and proven by indisputable testimony, is 
clearly omitted. This appears most noticeably in 
regard to the character, beliefs and influence of Mr. 
Lincoln's mother. 

When a lawyer has promised the production of cer- 



tain testimony, and then omits to introduce it, the 
conjecture is that his case has not developed just as 
he had planned it. But lawyers are usually frankly 
partisan. 

In my humble opinion, you have done injustice to 
your subject by the manner of your treatment of the 
mother of Abraham Lincoln. 

The Religious Influence of 
Lincoln's Mother. 

You give a chapter of thirty-two pages to "The 
environment of Lincoln's boyhood," and scarcely a 
line, surely not a full paragraph without detraction, to 
the character, teaching or influence of his mother. 

In effect, you say you have learned from reading 
Buckle's History of Civilization, that the development 
of an individual or a nation is profoundly influenced by 
environment. I have not read Buckle. Does he show 
a single authentic case where environment has swept 
away the firmly fixed spiritual anchor of an individual? 
Does your cited authority reverse the judgment of 
Solomon rendered and formulated in an injunction 
three thousand years ago?* 

*Note — Froude, in his Essay on The Science of History, 
pays Mr. Buckle the highest compliments for persuasive elo- 
quence, diligence and persistency, but fails to endorse his 
theories as to the irresistible influence of environment upon 
mankind, or upon nations. 

Mr. Buckle maintained that "The Northern nations are 
hardy and industrious because they must till the earth if they 
would eat the fruits of it, and because the temperature is 
too low to make an idle life enjoyable. In the South the 
soil is more productive, while less food is wanted, and fewer 
clothes, and in the exquisite air exertion is not needed to 
make the sense of existence delightful. Therefore, in the 
South we find men lazy and indolent." 

Mr. Froude mildly remarks that "There are difficulties in 

Ten 



Environment, of course, should be studied. Envi- 
ronment may warp or develop, may profoundly influ- 
ence an individual life; but if the anchor is shown to 
have been firmly fixed, as in Lincoln's case, I venture 
to say no environment, such as his is known to have 
been, has ever been shown to sweep that anchor away 
from the rock of truth. 

There may be drifting and tossing, slacking and 
straining of the cable, darkness and storms may for 
years hide the rock, but the anchor holds, and the bark 
will not depart. So said the wise man, and so the 
religious life of Lincoln illustrated. 

Have you not laid unprofitable stress upon the 
"character of the preaching which Abraham Lincoln 
heard in his boyhood" and forgotten his mother's 
Bible, and his mother's prayers? 

You, no doubt, say truly that the prevailing and 
almost the sole type of preaching in that part of 
Indiana during Lincoln's boyhood "was a very unpro- 
gressive type" and "against it the boy, Abe Lincoln, 
rebelled." Why? Was it not the influence of his 
mother's teaching? 

In attempting to set forth "The True Story of 
Lincoln's Spiritual Life and Convictions," as the adver- 
tisement of your book expresses it, can Lincoln's 

these views, the home of the languid Italian was the home 
also of the sternest race of whom the story of mankind 
retains a record. And, again when we are told that the 
Spaniards are sviperstitious because Spain is a country of 
earthquakes, we remember Japan, the spot in all the World 
where earthquakes are most frequent, and where at the 
same time there is the most serene disbelief in any super- 
natural agency whatsoever. 

"Moreover, if men grow into what they are by natural 
laws, they can not help being v/hat they are, and if they 
can not help being what they are, a good deal will have to 
be altered in our general view of human obligations and 
responsibilities." 



mother, her faith, her rehgion, her teachings, be 
ignored? Can one properly learn the secret of a tree's 
development and ignore its root? 

In my humble opinion, it was very much more 
important to study the mother's religion, w^ho held 
constant communion with the boy until he was nearly 
ten years of age, than to study the environments of 
either that mother or that boy during that period, or to 
inquire closely into the particular kind of a church that 
she joined with her husband, in a wilderness where 
churches w^ere scarce, or the kind of preaching that the 
boy heard in those days or even the preaching that he 
heard, or failed to hear, in after years, but of course 
this is only my opinion. 

When I say religion, I mean, not the particular 
creed or doctrine of any church that she may have 
joined, but what was her girlhood religion, her wo- 
man's faith, her belief in God and about God, and her 
love of her boy. 

Lincoln himself has not left the question of his 
mother's influence in doubt. Probably few prominent 
men of fifty-six have left such indisputable evidence 
as to the character and influence of his mother, and 
where and by whom his spiritual anchor was fixed. 

I do not find that you have quoted any of these 
items of evidence in your book of upwards of 400 
pages, and this is one of the omissions that I com- 
plain of. 

J. G. Holland, as you know, in 1865, after the 
assassination, wrote a life of Lincoln, and in the prej)- 
aration thereof went into the neighborhoods of all 
three of the states where Lincoln had lived, and where 
there were at that time many still living who knew 
personally Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the President's 



mother, and personally gathered the evidence as to 
both mother and son. 

That Holland was not lacking in "training in or 
inclination toward historical investigation" (as yon 
say Bishop Fowler was) must be admitted, and after 
such investigation he deliberately placed on record the 
facts that he found, and the conclusions that he came 
to, as follows : 

"Mrs. Lincoln, the mother, was evidently a wo- 
man out of place among those primitive surround- 
ings. She was five feet, five inches high, a slender, 
pale, sad and sensitive woman, with much in her 
nature that was truly heroic, and much that shrank 
from the rude life around her. A great man never 
drew his infant life from a purer or more womanly 
bosom than her own ; and Mr. Lincoln ahvays 
looked back to her with an unspeakable affection. 
Long after her sensitive heart and weary hands had 
crumbled into dust, and had climbed to life again 
in forest flowers, he said to a friend, with tears in 
his eyes : 'All that I am, or hope to he, I ozve to 
my angel mother — blessings on her memory' ."'■'^ 

"His character was planted in this Christian 
mother's life. Its roots were fed by this Christian 
mother's love ; and those that have wondered at 
the truthfulness and earnestness of his mature 
character have only to remember that the tree zms 
true to the soil from which it sprang." 

Even Herndon, who lifted up his heel against the 
son — mistakenly, no doubt — left on record a loving 
tribute to that mother, and he quotes from a friend, 
present at her deathbed, on October 5, 1818 : 

"The mother knew she was going to die, and 
called her children (Abe and Sarah) to her bedside. 
She was very weak, and the children leaned over 
while she gave her last message. Placing her feeble 
hand on little Abe's head, she told him to be kind 

*Scc Appendix II. 



and good to his father and sister ; to both she said 
'Be good to one another,' expressing a hope that 
they might Hve as they had been taught by her, to 
love their kindred and worship God." 

Holland, again quoting from the White House, in 
Lincoln's dark days, when he had buried his little 
Willie, says that after the funeral, when the Christian 
nurse expressed sympathy for him, Lincoln replied : 

"I wish I had that childlike faith you speak of, 
and I trust He will give it to me." And then he 
spoke of his mother, whom so many years before he 
had committed to the dust among the wilds of 
Indiana. In this hour of his great trial, the mem- 
ory of her who had held him upon her bosom, and 
soothed his childish griefs, came back to him with 
tenderest recollections. 7 remember her prayers,' 
said he, 'and they have always follozved me. They 
have clung to me all my life'." 

Isaac N. Arnold, Esq., was an intelligent, credible 
witness, an intimate friend, an attorney, and member 
of Congress, and had exceptional opportunities to 
know whereof he testified, and he says : 

"No more reverent Christian than he ever sat 
in the executive chair, not excepting Washington. 
. From the time he left Springfield to his 
death he not only himself continually prayed for 
divine assistance, but continually asked the prayers 
of his friends for himself and his country. . . . 
Doubtless, like others, he passed through periods 
of doubt and perplexity, but his faith in a Divine 
Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran 
through all the changes of his life." 

There is at least one more direct witness from 
whom you have quoted a remarkable incident* — Father 
Chiniquy — "The Apostle of Temperance of Canada." 
After describing his own deliverance from a criminal 

*See Appendix III. 

Fourteen 



charge, based on perjured testimony before the court 
at Urbana, IlHnois, in May, 1856, in which, after the 
adjournment of court at ten o'clock at night, the first 
day of the trial, his attorney, Lincoln, informed him 
that unless he could establish an alibi, he would be 
convicted in the morning, and added : "The only way 
to be sure of a favorable verdict tomorrow is that 
Almighty God would take our part, and show your 
innocence. Go to Him and pray, for He alone can save 
you," and when, at three o'clock, an unknown witness 
came and he was saved, that in Lincoln's talk with him 
in the morning, he said : 

"The way you have been saved from their hand, 
the appearance of that young and intelligent Miss 
Moffat, who was really sent by God in the very 
hour of need, when, I confess it again, I thought 
everything was nearly lost, is one of the most extra- 
ordinary occurrences I ever saw. It makes me 
remember what I have too often forgotten, and 
zvhat my mofJier often told me zvlien young — that 
our God is a prayer-hearing God. This good 
thought sozvn into my young heart by that dear 
mother's hand, zvas just in my mind when I told 
you, 'Go and pray, God alone can save you.' But 
I confess to you that I had not faith enough to 
believe that your prayer would be so quickly and so 
marvelously answered by the sudden appearance of 
that interesting young lady last night." 

I repeat, I know of no man of prominence, who 
has not written his own autobiography, who has left 
more unimpeachable evidence as to where his spiritual 
anchor was fixed, and zvho it zvas that placed it. 
Neither his mother's character, nor her religious faith 
can be ignored in any proper study of the spiritual life 
of Abraham Lincoln. 

It is true that you have not omitted entire reference 



to the mother. On page 86, when describing the 
opportunities of the bleak environment, you say, 
"Herndon tells us of the fondness of the Hanks girls 
for camp-meetings, and describes one in which Nancy 
appears to have participated, a little time before her 
marriage. We have no reason to believe that was her 
last camp-meeting." 

The facts that Herndon has left on record, are : 

"The Hanks girls were great at camp-meetings." 
"The Hanks girls were the finest singers and 
shouters in our county." 

But even he seemed to hesitate to assert that it was 
Nancy Hanks that participated in the scene, at a certain 
Kentucky camp-meeting, fantastically described by his 
informant, an outsider, who, with his girl, stood upon 
a bench in order to look over into the altar, and to 
laugh at the shouting. 

Notwithstanding this reference to camp-meetings, 
you had deliberately asserted, at the top of page 48 : 
"It is a remarkable fact that the Lincoln family ap- 
pears, never at any time in its history, to have been 
strongly under the influence of Methodism." 

Was it the Presbyterians or the hard shell Baptists 
tliat conducted camp-meetings in Kentucky during the 
first decade of 1800? I am somewhat in the dark, 
never having taught school in that state, even in the 
80's, and not being specially educated in historical 
investigations. 

To emphasize the fact that you make the statement 
deliberately, you add a note: "I do not forget that 
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married by 
Reverend Jesse Head, who was a Methodist preacher, 
but I do not find evidence that Mr. Head asserted any 
marked influence over them. Mr. Head was not only 



a minister, but a Justice of the Peace, and anti-slavery 
man, and a person of strong and righteous character. 
I am not sure whether the fact that he performed the 
marriage is not due in some measure to the fact that 
he was about the court house, and a convenient minister 
to find." 

This insinuation of a hasty marriage is unworthy, 
and of course unfounded and false. The record shows 
that the marriage bond was formally executed and filed 
two days before the wedding, and that the marriage 
was celebrated at the home of Richard Berry, and the 
infare at the home of her guardian, to both of which 
all the neighbors came, etc. 

Is there any evidence that the active circuit rider, 
Rev. Jesse Head, "Deacon of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church" (as he signed himself), was in the habit of 
loafing around the court house ? Where was this court 
house located? 

At another place in your work, you admit that: 

"I am inclined to think that the Hanks family 
had Methodist antecedents. Thomas and Nancy 
Lincoln were married by a Methodist preacher. 
Rev. Jesse Head. He is known to have been a foe 
of slavery, and there is some reason to think that 
the Lincoln family derived some part of its love of 
freedom from him." 

There is no question of the correctness of these 
tardily admitted facts, and I am inclined to think that 
investigation would show that the hymns that Nancy 
Hanks sung were those of Charles Wesley, and that 
at the camp-meetings there were many sermons 
preached on Free Grace, and "Whosoever will," in 
short, that she was an ardent, devout, active Methodist. 

Whether she was a Methodist or not is, in my view, 
unimportant. She was, as the histories show, a loving. 

Seventeen 



sincere, earnest, praying mother, who trained her boy 
in the way he should go, and any attempt to take from 
her her rightful crown of glory, and give it to any 
preacher, or group of preachers, or cast it upon envi- 
ronment, will and should fail. Justice is due to her 
memory. 

You have not written into any line the name of the 
denomination to which you belong, or the specific creed 
or doctrine to which you adhere. As a historian, of 
course, your personal views are entirely immaterial. 
A historian is expected to give all the facts without 
permitting his own views to influence the record by 
omissions or otherwise. When a man undertakes, 
however, to record his own personal judgment, it is 
important to know what his personal beliefs are, as 
even unconsciously his mind may be warped thereby. 

I have no reason for leaving anything to be read 
between the lines, and frankly say that I am a Metho- 
dist — a layman — and do not believe that my mind has 
been greatly warped by reading theology. It is not, 
however, my aim, and if you can comprehend it, it is 
not my wish or desire to prove that Lincoln was a 
Methodist. 

I think Father Chiniquy came nearer the truth 
when he said that Lincoln was the embodiment of all 
which is more perfect and Christian in more than one 
denominatfon. 

Personally, I believe that Lincoln's belief embodied 
more that was distinctively Methodist than Calvinist, 
and I do resent the slight you have attempted to place 
upon his mother. 



EinhU'en 



Rev. Col. J. F. Jaquess — Conversion 

I respectfully submit that in your book you did 
injustice to my friend and former pastor. Rev. Edward 
L. Watson, D. D., now of Baltimore, in that you 
charge him with having reported hearsay details as 
direct testimony, and have done wrong to the memory 
of Rev. Col. Jaquess in your assertion of the question- 
ableness of the story as told by him, and wrong to the 
memory of Mr. Lincoln, in repeatedly asserting that 
his life, after 1847 (or even 1839), was not consistent 
with the truth of the events recited by Colonel Jaquess. 

You have given over two pages to a subhead, "Was 
Abraham Lincoln a Methodist?" 

W^ho did you ever know to claim that Lincoln was 
a Methodist? 

In your book you say : 

(1) "This question would seem to require no 
answer, yet it is one that should receive an answer, 
for claims have been made, and are still current, 
which imply that Lincoln was actually converted in 
the Methodist church, whose doctrine he accepted 
because Calvinism was repugnant to him ; and that 
while he continued to attend the Presbyterian 
church, he was essentially a Methodist." 

(2) "At a reunion of the Seventy-third Illinois 
Volunteers held in Springfield on September 28 
and 29, 1897, the colonel of that regiment. Rev. 
James F. Jaquess, D. D., related an incident in 
which he stated that while he was serving a Metho- 
dist church in Springfield in i8s9, Mr. Lincoln 
attended a series of revival services held in that 
church, and was converted." 

(3) "Twelve years later, in 1909. in connection 
with the Centenary Celebration of the birth of 
Lincoln, the story was reprinted, imth certain added 
details obtained from the brother of Colonel 
Jaquess. 

Nineteen 



The death of Colonel Jaquess and the additions 
made by his brother give this incident its permanent 
form in the Christian Advocate article of November 
11, 1909." (See appendix.) 

(4) "That the story as told by Colonel Jaquess 
must have some element of truth I think beyond 
question ; that it occurred exactly as he related it, 
I greatly doubt. The years between 1839 and 1897 
numbered fifty-eight, and that is more than ample 
time for a man's memory to magnify and color 
incidents almost beyond recognition." 

"The story as it is thus told lacks confirmatory 
evidence. // Lincoln was converted in a Methodist 
church in 1839 and remained converted, a consider- 
able number of events which occurred in subsequent 
years might reasonably have been expected to have 
been otherwise than they really were. Each reader 
must judge for himself in the light of all that we 
know of Abraham Lincoln how much or how little 
of this story is to be accepted as literal fact. The 
present writer cannot say that he is convinced by 
the story." 

(In Note) — "It is a story which it is impossible 
to fit into the life of Lincoln. In Latest Light on 
Lincoln, Page 396, Chapman says, 'There is every 
reason for giving this remarkable story unquestion- 
ing credence.' On the contrary, there is every 
good reason for questioning it at every essential 
point, and the questions do not evoke satisfactory 
answers." 

After thus attempting to discount the story, and 
discredit both Dr. Watson and Colonel Jaquess, you 
published in full Dr. Watson's article of November 11, 
1909, in the Appendix to your volume. 

A careful reading of the article, even if not sympa- 
thetic, will show the many errors in your attempted 
repudiation of its truth. Dates are sometimes impor- 
tant, and every lawyer knows that testimony from 
memory as to dates is very unreliable, and usually 

Twenty 



practically worthless. It behooves a historian, there- 
fore, to check up the dates, unless they are based 
specifically upon record. 

The date that Rev. Jaquess preached the sermon 
upon "Ye must be born again" — which Mr. Lincoln 
listened to, and afterwards went to the parsonage where 
Mr, Jaquess and his wife prayed with him, was in 
May, 1847, not in 1839. I give simply the proper 
date, and will hereafter give the evidence that sustains 
it. 

Mr. Jaquess' own story, as told by himself at the 
Eleventh Annual Reunion of the Survivors of the 
Seventy-third Regiment, held September 28 and 29, 
1897, and which Dr. Watson correctly copied into his 
article of November 11, 1909, is as follows: 

"Very soon after my second year's work as a 
minister in the Illinois conference, I was sent to 
Springfield. ... It was one Sunday morning, 
a beautiful morning in May . . . the church 
happened to be filled that morning. It was a good 
sized church, but on that day all the seats were 
filled. I had chosen for my text the words, 'Ye 
must be born again,' and during the course of my 
sermon I laid particular stress on the word 'must.' 
Mr. Lincoln came in the church after the services 
had commenced, and there being no vacant seats, 
chairs were put in the altar in front of the pulpit 
and Mr. Lincoln and Governor French and wife 
sat in the altar during the entire services, Mr. 
Lincoln on my left and Governor French on my 
right, and I noticed that Mr. Lincoln appeared to 
be deeply interested in the sermon. A few days 
after that Sunday Mr. Lincoln called on me and 
informed me that he had been greatly impressed 
with my remarks on Sunday and that he had come 
to talk to me further on the matter. I invited him 
in, and my wife and I talked and prayed with him 
for hours. Now, I have seen many persons con- 

Twenty-one 



verted ; I have seen hundreds brought to Christ, 
and if ever a person was converted, Abraham Lin- 
coln was converted that night in my house. His 
wife was a Presbyterian, but from remarks he 
made to me he could not accept Calvinism. He 
never joined my church, but I will always believe 
that since that night Abraham Lincoln lived and 
died a Christian gentleman." 

Now, what is there in this story that is improbable, 
false, or inconsistent with the future life, habits and 
actions of Mr. Lincoln? What did he do after May, 
1847, that was inconsistent with the most critical con- 
struction of Colonel Jaquess' statement? 

Dr. Watson, in his article in the Christian Advocate, 
quoted this statement, word for word. He added 
nothing to it, except his own expression of pleasure 
that he was able to prove that Methodism had a hand 
in the making of the greatest American. 

If you had read with care the first part of Dr. 
Watson's article, you would have seen that he was 
giving from memory the narrative told him personally 
by Colonel Jaquess twelve years before. There is not 
one syllable in the narrative admitted by Dr. Watson, 
to be "added details obtained from the brother of 
Colonel Jaquess," and your repeated assertion that Dr. 
Watson had reported "additions made by his brother" 
is wrong, and a wrong on your part to Dr. Watson. 

That Dr. Watson had carried in his mind for twelve 
years without memoranda the narrative as clearly as 
stated, is really remarkable. He wrote it out in 1909 
without having before him, very evidently, any memo- 
randa of the incident, — not even the garbled accounts 
printed in the Minneapolis newspapers in May, 1897. 

It appears that after Colonel Jaquess had told the 
incident to Dr. Watson, in May, 1897, that he was 
invited by him to attend the Minneapolis Ministers' 



Monday Meeting-, which he did, and told to them there 
the same story that he related in September of the 
same year, before the soldiers' reunion in Springfield. 
Dr. Watson having apparently partially prepared 
his article of 1909, discovered, after doing so, that 
the record was in the minutes of the proceedings of the 
reunion of the Regiment of 1897, and instead of re- 
writing his own memory report, he says : "The narra- 
tive as told thus far is as my memory recalls it. Since 
writing it, the same, as told by Colonel Jaquess has 
recently been discovered by me in the minutes of the 
proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Reunion Survivors 
Seventy-third Regiment, Illinois Infantry Volunteers, 
page 30, a copy of which is before me," and he then 
quotes the record, both of which are before me. 

As to the dates given by Dr. Watson from memory, 
there are three, only one of them is important — 1894 — 
the date that he came to Minneapolis, is correct ; 
"1896," the date when he met Colonel Jaquess, should 
be 1897; and 1839 as the date of Colonel Jaquess' 
sermon that Lincoln listened to, should be 1847; but 
only one of them is important — 1847. 

If you had investigated the question, as a historian, 
before condemning it, you would have noticed this 
error in dates, because Colonel Jaquess was not a 
minister of the gospel in 1839. You will note that 
Colonel Jaquess says that the date that he came to 
Springfield was "very soon after my second year's 
work as a minister." Methodist ministers were ap- 
pointed annually, but never more than three years to 
the same place, and seldom more than two. 

The year book of Depauw University — 1884 — gives 
Colonel Jaquess as an alumnus, vS^ith the following: 
"Graduated 1845, entered Illinois Conference ; 1845 

Twenty-three 



appointed to Shawneetown Circuit; 1846 Petersburg; 
1847-48 Springfield; 1849 President Female College, 
Jackson; 1855 Paris Station; 1856 President College, 
Quincy, Illinois; . . . Address: London, Eng- 
land." 

Hon. Augustus C. French was Governor of Illinois 
from December 9, 1846, to 1852, an irregular term, 
caused by the Constitution being amended during his 
first term. 

Lincoln was in Springfield in May, 1847, and until 
November, when he was absent for two years in Wash- 
ington, D. C, in Congress. 

This record does not contradict, but corroborates 
the story of Colonel Jaquess that in May, soon after 
his second year in the ministry, he had the opportunity 
of preaching a sermon to which Abraham Lincoln and 
Governor French and his wife might have listened. 
Did he? Who is the witness? Was he credible? 

Let us look for a moment at your discounts : 

(1) You assert that it is implied that Lincoln was 
actually converted in the Methodist church, whose 
doctrine he accepted, and that while he continued to 
attend the Presbyterian church, he was essentially a 
Methodist. 

The record does not disclose any discussion of a 
distinctive "doctrine," accepted or otherwise. It was 
the necessity of a new birth that interested Lincoln. 
There was no continuing to attend the Presbyterian 
church, because Lincoln had not commenced in 1847, 
much less in 1839, according to your own record, to 
attend that church with his wife. It was not until 
after February 1, 1850, that he even became acquainted 
with Dr. James Smith, of Sacred Memory. 

Twenty-four 



(2) You are wrong in asserting that, in 1897, be- 
fore his comrades in Springfield, Rev. James F. 
Jaquess, D. D., related an incident in which he stated 
that "while he was serving a Methodist church in 
Springfield in i8jp, Mr. Lincoln attended his service," 
etc. Colonel Jaquess pointed out the correct date, and 
a historian should not have perpetuated the erroneous 
date, given expressly from memory of a narrator, not 
claiming to have been especially "trained in historical 
research." 

(3) You are doubly wrong in asserting that "The 
story was reprinted with certain added details obtained 
from the brother of Colonel Jaquess." 

The brother added not a syllable, and even much 
less than a sympathetic reading of the article of No- 
vember 11, 1909, would have shown this clearly, and 
that your assertions were a direct reflection on Dr. 
Watson. 

(4) Your grounds for discrediting the story is the 
assumption that Colonel Jaquess had magnified and 
colored the incident almost beyond recognition during 
the fifty years that elapsed between the incident and 
the telling. 

Stories grow by retelling. There is no evidence 
that Colonel Jaquess repeated the story more than 
three times, once to Dr. Watson, once to the Minne- 
apolis ministers, and once to his comrades at their 
reunion. 

Your questioning reflects on the character of 
Colonel Jaquess, and calls for a showing of the kind 
of man he really was, which I will aim to touch on 
hereafter. 

Why Colonel Jaquess did not repeat this story over 

Twenty-five 



and over again during the fifty years, so that others 
who had written about Lincoln should have learned 
of it before 1897, is explained by the fact that Colonel 
Jaquess was not living in America at the time the 
questions were being raised as to the religious beliefs 
of Abraham Lincoln. 

At the close of the war in 1866, he went into the 
Freedmen's Bureau, and until 1875 was engaged there 
and in work of restoration in the South. He then 
became interested in business which took him to Eng- 
land, and for over twenty years he resided abroad. 

The record only shows that he was able to attend 
two of the reunions of his regiment, at both of which 
he made the annual address. 

In 1889 he came from London, expressly to attend 
that meeting, and after traveling 4,000 miles and 
meeting his comrades at their reunion, he stayed but 
twenty-four hours, and returned to meet pressing 
engagements in England. 

The other time that he met with the regiment was 
in September, 1897, when he not only made the annual 
address, but related the incident in regard to Mr. 
Lincoln, which Dr. Watson quoted. 

Bishop Fowler's oration, to which he referred, and 
which recalled the incident to his mind, was delivered 
first in Minneapolis in 1894, not in IQ04, as you give 
the date on page 111. I had heard that admirable 
oration twice before 1904, and do not accept your at- 
tempted detractions. The Bishop, even if not having 
"had any training in or inclination toward historical 
investigation," had the advantage of being personally 
acquainted with Lincoln, and with many of his 
advisors. 

Whether Dr. Jaquess had heard of the life of 

Twenty-six 



Lincoln by Herndon, or by Lamon, does not appear, 
but he had heard of Bishop Fowler's lecture, and as he 
says that that lecture reminded him that, "I happen to 
know something on that subject (Lincoln's religion) 
that very few persons know. My wife, who has been 
dead nearly two years, was the only witness of what I 
am going to state to you as having occurred," and then 
he narrates the occurrence to his comrades. 

Your next statement is that the story, as it is thus 
told, lacks confirmatory evidence. The character of 
Dr. Jaquess, then in his seventy-seventh year, would 
seem to be sufficient in itself ; but you say that a 
considerable number of events which occurred in sub- 
sequent years might reasonably have been expected to 
have been otherwise than they really were, if Lincoln 
had been converted in a Methodist church. 

What are those events? Is a definition of "con- 
version," as well as a definition of "infidelity," re- 
quired ? 

You will note the language of Dr. Jaquess : "Now, 
I have seen many persons converted. I have seen 
hundreds brought to Christ, and if ever a person was 
converted, Abraham Lincoln was converted that night 
in my house. He never joined my church, but I will 
always believe that since that night Abraham Lincoln 
lived and died a Christian gentleman." 

Was not this last true? In fact, is it not corrobo- 
rated in every known event which occurred in Lincoln's 
life in subsequent years? 

When Lincoln returned from Washington in 1849, 
Colonel Jaquess had gone from Springfield.* Who 
his successor was I have not inquired. 

*Note— W. G. Jaquess, "The Drummer Boy of Chicka- 
mauga," now Superintendent of Schools of Tunica County. 
Mississippi, in a letter to his cousin. Miss Fannie M. 
Jaquess, said, "In a conversation with Senator Cullom, 

Twenty-seven 



Lincoln with his logical mind was not liable to 
attend church where the preaching was poor, and I 
know of no evidence that he attended any church after 
his return from Washington, until after February, 
1850, when his wife attended, and in 1852 joined the 
Presbyterian church. He went with her to hear Dr. 
Smith, who was an able preacher. Dr. Smith did not 
claim, so far as your records show, that Mr. Lincoln 
was converted under his preaching, or in his church 
(he never joined it), and the most that can be claimed 
is that he enjoyed Dr. Smith's preaching — that he was 
helped by it, and that Dr. Smith with his book "The 
Christian's Defense," helped Lincoln to dissolve his 
doubts ; he found the arguments "unanswerable." 

It was a question of intellect and mind. Conversion 
rather is a matter of heart, I take it. 

I have heard that Satan often comes back with old 
or new doubts after conversion. Lincoln seems to 
have been so assailed again in 1862, and it was an 
Episcopal rector who helped him. (Johnson on Lincoln 
the Christian, pp. 30-34.) 

It seems to me that the story, as told by Colonel 
Jaquess, does fit into the life of Lincoln, and that there 
is no good reason for questioning any essential point of 
Colonel Jaquess' narrative. 

You call New Salem Mr. Lincoln's Alma Mater- 
well and good. Mr. Lincoln came from his Alma 
Mater on his borrowed horse, with his mother's Bible, 
Aesop's Fables, and Pilgrim's Progress, but like many 
another young man, he evidently had been using his 

of Illinois, several years ago, in discussing old times, 
father's name was mentioned quite often, and he remarked 
that he and Mr. Lincoln frequently went to hear father 
preach, and that they both enjoyed his sermons very much." 
lie further said: "I have not seen Mr. Barton's book." 

Twenty-eight 



intellect and his reason while in that school, and came 
out with many unsolved doubts. He had, for the time 
being, gotten away from his mother's prayers, although 
he carried and read, and had memorized much of his 
mother's Bible, and the book and preaching of Dr. 
Smith was what was needed to help him over the 
doubts. 

The evidence seems clear, aside from Colonel 
Jaquess' report, that somewhere between the time he 
alighted in front of Joshua Speed's Store, April 15, 
1837, and that February day in 1861, when he stood on 
the platform of the train, there had been a decided 
change of heart — a new birth — a conversion. His 
whole life shows it, and I know of no event subsequent 
to 1847 that contradicts the fact narrated by Colonel 
Jaquess. 

That there was much unbelief in Springfield, as 
well as in New Salem, is evidenced by the fact that 
each of the three close friends of Lincoln — Herndon, 
Lamon and Speed — believed himself to be an infidel. 

After twenty-five years of such environment, Mr. 
Lincoln came forth on his way to the presidency, with 
his mother's Bible in his hand, a prayer upon his lips, 
and a firm faith in his heart that there was a prayer- 
hearing God, and that if the great God who assisted 
Washington, would be with and aid him, he would not 
fail in his allotted task. 

Lincoln was converted just as Dr. Jaquess related. 

It is interesting to note that Lincoln's closest friend. 
Joshua Speed, after his conversation with Lincoln in 
the Summer of 1864, upon belief in the Bible, over- 
came his skepticism and joined the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 

You have deliberately so reflected upon Colonel 

Twenty-nine 



Jaquess, "the Fighting Parson," that a sHght acquaint- 
ance with him should be sought. You lay down as the 
first question in weighing testimony, "Is the witness 
credible ?" 

It is well. What kind of a man was Rev. James 
Frazier Jaquess, D, D., pastor of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. Springfield, from the Spring of 1847 
until 1849? [Fall of 1846 until 1848.] 

Chapter 8, of the History of the "Preacher Regi- 
ment," sometimes called "The Methodist Regiment," 
which was enlisted by Colonel Jaquess, and com- 
manded by him from Shilo to the end of the war, is 
devoted to the life of its colonel, was written by one 
who knew him well, and says of him as a preacher 
and teacher : 

"During his whole career as a preacher and 
teacher, Mr. Jaquess was a man of strongly marked 
individuality. His address was polished and win- 
ning, his presence magnetic to a marked degree. 
He influenced all with whom he came in contact, 
and made friends by the thousand in all parts of the 
country. He was in great demand in the pulpit and 
on the platform, his oratory being of the earnest, 
electric kind, that was popular with all classes of 
people, from the ripest scholar to the humblest 
laborer or frontiersman. He was never abashed in 
any company, and no man ever felt abashed in his. 
He took a living interest in all public affairs ; but in 
his chosen sphere as a Christian minister he shone 
to unsurpassed advantage. Whenever it was an- 
nounced that he was to preach, whether at a city 
church, a cross-road schoolhouse, or a backwoods 
camp-meeting, hundreds flocked to hear and went 
away to praise." 

Just the man Lincoln would be expected to wish to 
hear, and to be willing to pay a quarter to be sure that 
he might not be bored by a journeyman. 

Th'-rty 



After Shilo, he resigned as chaplain of the Sixth 
Illinois, and asked the privilege of raising and com- 
manding a "Methodist Regiment" for the war. This 
regiment was unique, nearly all of the commissioned 
officers from the colonel down, and twenty of the 
privates, were licensed Methodist preachers, while 
something over 600 of the soldiers in the ranks were 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church. When 
mustered out, the record showed that it had been in ten 
battles, and many skirmishes, and of the 972 members, 
215 had been killed or died of wounds or disease, while 
182 had been discharged on account of wounds or dis- 
abilities; that its colonel had two horses killed under 
him in battle. His son of fourteen years was a drum- 
mer boy, captured and escaped, and is the subject of 
the romance, "The Boy of Chickamauga." 

In 1864, when all at home were tired of the war, 
certain parties from the South were in Canada, at 
Niagara Falls, talking peace, and Horace Greeley was 
urging Lincoln to treat with them, and the Peace Party 
in the North was growing like a snowball upon a 
descending incline. Lincoln believed it would be desir- 
able, if possible, to sound Jefferson Davis personally, 
and as he expressed it, "draw his fire." 

Colonel Jaquess had proposed undertaking such a 
trip to General Rosencrans, who wrote to Lincoln, 
forwarding Jaquess' letter by J. R. Gilmore, the anti- 
slavery writer and lecturer, of Boston.* Gilmore had 
three interviews with the President, who, while anxious 
to obtain the information, said the trip, if made, must 
be taken on individual, unofficial responsibility, and 
that it would be dangerous, and finally Lincoln insisted 
that Gilmore accompany Jaquess. The trip was made. 

*See Appendix IV. 

Thirty-one 



They carried "terms" to be talked to, but under no 
circumstances to be known as dictated by Lincoln. 
These were characteristic — "Surrender, Union, Eman- 
cipation, — then Amnesty, Compensation for Slaves." 
Lincoln said, "I know Jaquess will be discreet. Explain 
to him why I can not see him personally. I don't want 
to hurt his feelings." 

A two hour conference was had with Mr. Davis 
and Benjamin, his secretary of state. 

A partial report was published in the September 
and December Atlantic Monthly, 1864, as "Our Visit 
to Richmond." The balance as "A Suppressed Chapter 
in History" in the same magazine, April, 1887. The 
result was that they drew from Davis personally the 
ultimatum, "We are not fighting for slavery, 2ve are 
fighting for independence," and Lincoln said to Gil- 
more, "This may be worth as much to us as a half 
dozen battles. Jaquess was right, God's hand is in it. 
Publish a card of the result of your visit ; get it into the 
Tribune ; everybody is agog to hear your report. It 
will show the country that I didn't fight shy of 
Greeley's Niagara business without a reason." 

The result of the visit was published all over the 
North, the Peace Party melted away and Lincoln was 
triumphantly re-elected. 

When Gilmore was urging the President to give 
Jaquess an official standing for his trip, Lincoln said, 
"I know Jaquess. He feels that he is acting as God's 
servant and messenger, and he would recoil from any- 
thing like political finesse. We want to draw Davis' 
fire, but we must do it fairly." 

Garfield, Chase, Sumner and Rosencrans all ap- 
proved of Colonel Jaquess' action, and were with 

Thirty-two 



President Lincoln delighted with the result as a great 
service to the country. 

Gilmore in his report in 1864, in the Atlantic, said 
of his companion : "A man more cool, more brave, 
more self-confident, more self-devoted than this quiet 
^Western Parson,' it never was my fortune to en- 
counter." 

Now it was just thirty-three years from the time of 
Colonel Jaquess' return from Richmond with the word 
that war or disunion was the only terms possible, and 
the whole country was ringing with his name, that he 
related to his comrades in arms the story of Lincoln's 
visit to his parsonage in Springfield in 1847. He was 
then still vigorous and clear-headed, though in his 
seventy-seventh year. He was not the man either to 
magnify or exaggerate. He zvas a credible zvitncss, 
and I submit that Dr. Chapman was correct when he 
recorded this incident "with complete assurance of its 
correctness," and that he was far more correct than 
you when he wrote in his Latest Light on Lincoln, 
"There is every reason for giving this remarkable story 
unquestioning credence." 

I beg to enclose a copy of the photograph of the 
witness. I am informed by his niece. Miss Fanny M. 
Jaquess, Acting Secretary of the Woman's Christian 
Association of Minneapolis, that she understands the 
original was taken in 1889, on the occasion of the 
reunion that year.* 

*Note — W. G. Jaquess, Superintendent of Education, 
Tunica, Miss., writes : "I am sure the address of father at 
the reunion of the 73rd was correct in every detail. I doubt 
if father repeated this story often, in fact am sure he did not. 
I never heard him do so but a very few times. I am sure the 
facts were so fixed in his mind that he could not have been 
mistaken." At the request of a Mr. Leslie "I sent the pro- 
ceedings of the reunion in which father's statement ap- 
peared, and was promised a copy of Rev. Barton's book, 
but have not seen it." 

Thirty-three 



Creed 

You have compiled for Abraham Lincohi a "creed" 
of nine articles. I have no fault to find with any one 
article taken from his addresses, messages, proclama- 
tions, and personal letters, written by himself. Half 
truths by omission is a fault. 

You say in regard to the selections you have made 
for your purpose : 

"We might go much farther and could find a 
considerable body of additional material, but this is 
sufficient and more than sufficient for our purpose. 
In these utterances may be found something of the 
determinism that was hammered into Lincoln by 
the early Baptist preachers and riveted by James 
Smith, along with some of the humanitarianism of 
Parker and Channing, and much zvhich lay 
unstratified in Lincoln's own mind but flowed spon- 
taneously from his pen or dropped from his lips 
because it was native to his thinking and had come 
to be a component part of his life. Anyone who 
cares to do so may piece these utterances together 
and test his success in making a creed out of them. 
They lend themselves somewhat readily to such an 
arrangement." 

As to the early preaching, you had already recorded 
that against it, "the boy Abe Lincoln rebelled," and that 
he only mimicked and ridiculed their hammering. 

You have again forgotten his mother, and failed to 
give her credit for the "much which lay unstratified in 
Lincoln's own mind — which was native to his thinking 
and had come to be a component part of his life." 

In your study of fourteen pages of the question of 
"Why did Lincoln never join the church?" you found 
yourself compelled to accept Lincoln's own answer, as 
established beyond any reasonable doubt, as being his 

Thirty-four 



own, and might, it seems to me, have been properly 
made an article of this constructed creed : 

"7 believe that ivhosocvcr loves the Lord, his 
God, tvith all his heart and soul, and mind and 
strength, and his neighbor as himself, is a Christian 
and should be admitted as a member of the visible 
church." 

The testimony supporting tliis article in the re- 
ported language of Mr. Lincoln himself is: 

"I have never miited myself to any church, 
because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, 
without mental reservation, to the long, complicated 
statements of Christian doctrine which characterize 
their articles of belief and confessions of faith. 
When any church will inscribe over its altars, as its 
sole qualification for membership, the Saviour's 
condensed statement of the substance of both law 
and gospel, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will 
I join with all my heart and all my soul." 

Whether you are right or not in your contention 
that the fault was not all with the churches, but that 
"Some share of the responsibility for his failure to 
unite with the church must belong to Lincoln himself," 
it would have been much fairer and seemed less par- 
tisan to not have omitted from a "creed" thrust upon 
him in the first person, this article again and again, an- 
nounced by him and proven beyond a reasonable doubt 
by three credible witnesses, one of them Rev. Phineas 
D. Gurley, Presbyterian pastor, of Washington, one 
Hon. Henry C. Deming, Congressman for Connecticut, 
who testified to it June 8, 1865, before there was time 
to permit any growth or exaggeration. 

You say "Lincoln lacked some of the finer feelings." 
He never lacked in scrupulous, conscientious honesty ; 

Thirty-five 



he never tried to mislead a court or jury by suppressing 
material testimony, rather he ran away and washed his 
hands. 

You entirely ignore the teaching of his mother, 
slight her as he never did, and yet repeat "though a 
Calvinist in his early training" — "The Calvinism which 
he inherited and heard through his childhood." Trained 
by whom? Inherited from whom? Heard where? 
Not at his mother's knee. I am sure your historical 
research has found no evidence that any such inher- 
itance, training or teaching came from this mother. 

The mother and the mother's influence can not be 
thus ignored in any "True Story of Lincoln's Life and 
Convictions."* 

The People Called Methodists 

Having, on page 48, asserted, for an evident pur- 
pose, as a statement of fact, "that the Lincoln family 
appears never at any time in its history to have been 
strongly under the influence of Methodism," thus 
slighting and ignoring entirely the mother, and your 
own statement on page 36, as to her participation be- 
fore and after her marriage in camp-meetings in Ken- 
tucky, you again, on page 64, make the assertion that 
Lincoln's "association with Methodists was largely in 
the political arena, where he crossed swords three times 
with Peter Cartwright." This statement lacks histor- 
ical accuracy. 

*Note— In the "Outlook" of April 14, 1920, Lyman Ab- 
bott, reviewing Dr. Barton's book, says : 

"Herndon says he was a fatalist— Barton that he was a 
Calvinist. He certainly was not a John Calvin Calvinist. 
Jol-.n Calvin held that man had lost his freedom in the fall; 
and Abraham Lincoln's whole understanding of life was ;v- 
based on his belief in the free will, and therefore the moral 
responsibility of m.an." 

Thirty-six 



After complimenting the Presiding Elder Cart- 
wright, as a doughty hero of the cross, who exerted a 
mighty influence for good in early Illinois, you say : 
"He, Lincoln, could not have failed to respect such 
men, but it is not altogether certain that he was tempted 
to love them." 

It is not altogether certain just what you mean by 
"them," but I hold no brief for the Methodists ; they 
need no defense, 

I was impelled to write this letter by reason of the 
glaring injustice and wrong attempted to be done to 
Abraham Lincoln's mother, and to my friend, Dr. 
Watson, and the memory of his friend. Dr. Jaquess. 
Both of these wrongs grated upon my sense of justice. 

As to Lincoln's love of Methodists, the history is 
too full to require citations. They and their influence 
were ever with his family and with him, in increasing 
numbers and force, from the cabin in Kentucky to the 
White House and the tomb, where Bishop Simpson 
pronounced the funeral oration. 

The soul of Abraham Lincoln was too large to 
admit of prejudice or bickering over sects, doctrines, or 
dogmas. While he prayed, "God bless the Methodist 
church," he added, "Bless all the churches," and while 
at his invitation both Bishop Simpson and Bishop Janes 
prayed with him in the White House, so did his Quaker 
lady friend more than once, and he said to her, "I feel 
helped and strengthened by your prayers." 

He also found strength and help from the Episcopal 
rector, Francis Vinton, D. D., as well as from the 
prayers of Dr. Smith and Dr. Gurley, the pastors of 
his wife's Presbyterian churches. He was one of the 
elect who learned of the doctrine by willing to do the 
will of his Master, and any attempt to contract that 

Thirty-seven 



great soul to promote a dogma is unworthy and un- 
seemly. Neither Dr. Smith nor Dr. Gurley ever made 
such an attempt, or intimated such a claim. 

Bishop Simpson is the only one to whom it is 
known that Lincoln showed his proposed Emancipation 
Proclamation before he read it to the Cabinet, and he 
suggested that there ought to be a recognition of God 
in that important paper, which may have led to Lin- 
coln's accepting and adopting the last sentence in prac- 
tically the language submitted by a member of his 
Cabinet. 

Dr. Bowman, afterwards Bishop, was chaplain of 
the Senate during the last year of the war, and tells of 
Bishop Simpson being sent for by Lincoln on many 
occasions for consultation upon public matters, and 
that Lincoln held him in the highest esteem, and at- 
tached much importance to his counsel ; never failed to 
attend upon his ministry, as he preached often in 
Washington, while Lincoln was in the White House, 
and Dr. Bowman gives this instance : 

"On one occasion, with two or three friends, I 
was conversing with Mr. Lincoln, near the distant 
window in the 'Blue Room,' when, unexpectedly, 
the door opened and Bishop Simpson entered. Im- 
mediately the President raised both arms, and 
started for the bishop almost on a run. When he 
reached him he grasped him with both hands and 
exclaimed, 'Why, Bishop Simpson, how glad I am 
to see you !' In a few moments we retired, and 
left them alone. I afterwards learned that they 
spent several hours in private, and that this was one 
of the times when the bishop had been specially 
asked by the President to come to Washington for 
such an interview." 

The task would be endless to show the many cases 
where not only Lincoln was influenced by, but where it 

Thirty-eight 



is "altogether certain" that he was not only tempted 
but that he did love such men, — among them Rev. 
Peter Akers, D. D., at the camp-meetings near the 
Salem church ; Dr. Jaquess, in Springfield ; Dr. Bow- 
man, Bishop Janes and Bishop Simpson at Washing- 
ton — but enough. 

As I have said before, I have no desire to prove that 
Lincoln was a Methodist, nor have I any need to 
defend the Methodist church or individual Methodists. 
This letter has been called forth by the injustice at- 
tempted to be done to the memory of Lincoln's angel 
mother, and the slight deliberately attempted to be 
placed upon my personal friend and former pastor, Dr. 
Watson, and I am, Sir, 

Yours for an unbiased and true story of Lincoln's 
Spiritual Life and Convictions, 




C^^^.^:^ 



405 Marquette Avenue. 




REV. COL. JAMES F. JAQUESS 



Appendix I 



THE CONVERSION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

By the Rev. Edward L. Watson. 

The reHgion of Abraham Lincohi is so much in de- 
bate that I feel called upon to give the following nar- 
rative of an event of which little seems to be known — 
and which is of real importance in understanding the 
man. He has been called an infidel — an unbeliever of 
varying degrees of blatancy. That he was a Christian 
in the real sense of the term is plain from his life. 
That he was converted during a Methodist revival 
seems not to be a matter of common report. The per- 
sonal element of this narrative is necessary to unfold 
the story. In 1894 I was appointed to the pastorate of 
the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, 
Minneapolis, Minn., by Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, being 
transferred from Frederick, Md., a charge in Balti- 
more Conference. It was in October that we entered 
the parsonage, which was a double house, the other 
half being rented by the trustees. Shortly after our 
occupancy of the church house William B. Jacquess 
moved into the rented half of the property, and through 
this fact I became acquainted with Colonel James F. 
Jacquess, his brother. At this time Colonel Jacquess 
was an old man of eighty years or more, of command- 
ing presence and wearing a long beard, which was as 
white as snow. His title grew out of the fact of his 
being the commanding officer of the Seventy-third 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, known as the Preacher 
Regiment. Its name was given through the publica- 
tion in the Cincinnati Commercial in September, 1862, 
of the roster of its officers : 

Forty-one 



Colonel — Rev. James F. Jacqitess, D. D., late presi- 
dent of Ouincy College. 

Lieutenant Colonel — Rev. Benjamin F. Northcott. 

Major— Rev. William A. Presson. 

Captains — Company B, Rev. W. B. M. Colt; Com- 
pany C, Rev. P. McNutt ; Company F, Rev. George 
W. Montgomery; Company H, Rev. James I. David- 
son ; Company I, Rev. Peter Wallace ; Company K, 
Rev. R. H. Langhlin. 

Six or seven of the twenty lieutenants were also 
licensed IMethodist preachers. Henry A. Castle, ser- 
geant major, was the author of the article and a son- 
in-law, if I mistake not, of Colonel Jacquess. 

The history of this regiment is, in brief, as follows : 
It was organized at the instance of Governor Dick 
Yates, under Colonel Jacquess, in August, 1862, at 
Camp Butler, in Illinois, and became part of General 
Buell's army. It fought nobly at Perryville, and in 
every battle in which the Army of the Cumberland was 
engaged, from October, 1862, to the rout of Hood's 
army at Nashville. Its dead were found at Murfrees- 
boro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, where Colonel 
Jacquess won especial distinction, and in the succession 
of battles from Chattanooga to the fall of Atlanta. It 
was frequently complimented by the commanding gen- 
erals and was unsurpassed in bravery and endurance. 
It left the state one of the largest, and returned one of 
the smallest, having lost two-thirds of its men in its 
three years' service. 

Colonel Jacquess was its only colonel and came 
home disabled by wounds received at Chickamauga, 
where two horses were shot under him. He refused to 
the last (1897) to receive a pension, until in his ex- 
treme old age, at the urgent request of the Society of 
the Survivors of the Seventy-third Illinois, he allowed 



it to be applied for. He pathetically said : "My grand- 
fathers were Revolutionary soldiers and you could get 
up a row if you mentioned pensions. My father and 
my uncles were in the War of 1812, and would take 
none. I had hoped not to receive one — but I am un- 
able now to do anything, and it has been my desire, 
and not the fault of the government, that I have never 
received a pension." These words were spoken in 1897 
— and not long afterward Colonel Jacquess went to his 
reward. 

Toward the end of the war President Lincoln sent 
Colonel Jacquess as a secret emissary to arrange for 
peace and the settlement of the slave question, so as to 
avert further shedding of blood. His adventures in 
this role are of thrilling interest. The foregoing is told 
to show the quality of the man whom it was my priv- 
ilege to meet in 1896, when he was in extreme old 
age. The honors conferred upon him by President 
Lincoln and the confidence reposed in him grew out of 
events which preceded the war. This was no other 
than the conversion of Mr. Lincoln under the ministry 
of the Rev. James F. Jacquess, at Springfield, 111., in 
the year 1839. The Rev. James F. Jacquess was sta- 
tioned at this new town — then of but a few thousand 
inhabitants — in 1839, when Lincoln met him during a 
series of revival services conducted in the Methodist 
Episcopal church. Lincoln had but recently come to 
the town — having removed from New Salem, which 
was in a decadent state. As a member of the legisla- 
ture, Lincoln had been a chief agent in establishing the 
state capitol at Springfield, and though in debt and 
exceedingly poor, he hoped to find friends and practice 
in the growing town. He was then thirty years of 
age, and had had few advantages of any sort. It 
was on a certain night, when the pastor preached from 

Forty-three 



the text, "Ye must be born again," that Lincohi was 
in attendance and was greatly interested. After the 
service he came round to the Httle parsonage, and, Hke 
another Nicodemus, asked, "How can these things be?" 
Mr. Jacquess explained as best he could the mystery 
of the new birth, and at Lincoln's request, he and his 
wife kneeled and prayed with the future President. It 
was not long before Mr. Lincoln expressed his sense 
of pardon and arose with peace in his heart. 

The narrative, as told thus far, is as my memory 
recalled it. Since writing it, the same as told by 
Colonel Jacquess has recently been discovered by me 
in Minutes of the Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual 
Reunion Survivors Seventy-third Regiment, Illinois 
Infantry, Volunteers (page 30), a copy of which is be- 
fore me. This meeting, the last (probably) that 
Colonel Jacquess attended, was held Tuesday and 
Wednesday, September 28, 29, 1897, in the Supreme 
Court room of the State Capitol Building, Spring- 
field, III. To quote Colonel Jacquess : "The men- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln's name recalls to my mind an oc- 
currence that perhaps I ought to mention. I notice that 
a number of lectures are being delivered recently on 
Abraham Lincoln. Bishop Fowler has a most splendid 
lecture on Abraham Lincoln, but they all, when they 
reach one point, run against a stone wall, and that is 
in reference to Mr. Lincoln's religious sentiments. I 
happen to know something on that subject that very 
few persons know. My wife, who has been dead near- 
ly two years, was the only witness of what I am going 
to state to you as having occurred. Very soon after 
my second year's work as a minister in the Illinois 
Conference, I was sent to Springfield. There were 
ministers in the Illinois Conference who had been labor- 
ing for twenty-five years to get to Springfield, the 



capital of the state. When the legislature met, there 
were a great many people here, and it was thought to 
be a matter of great glory among the ministers to be 
sent to Springfield. But I was not pleased with my 
assignment. I felt my inability to perform the work. 
I did not know what to do. I simply talked to the 
Lord about it, however, and told Him tliat unless I had 
help I was going to run away. I heard a voice saying 
to me Tear not,' and I understood it perfectly. Now I 
am coming to the point I want to make to you. I was 
standing at the parsonage door one Sunday morning, a 
beautiful morning in May, when a little boy came up to 
me and said: 'Mr. Lincoln sent me around to see if 
you was going to preach today.' Now, I had met Mr. 
Lincoln, but I never thought any more of Abe Lin- 
coln than I did of any one else. I said to the boy : 
'You go back and tell Mr. Lincoln that if he will come 
to church he will see whether I am going to preach 
or not.' The little fellow stood working his fingers 
and finally said : 'Mr. Lincoln told me he would give 
me a quarter if I would find out whether you are going 
to preach.' I did not want to rob the little fellovv^ of his 
income, so I told him to tell Mr. Lincoln that I was 
going to try to preach. I was always ready and willing 
to accept any assistance that came along, and whenever 
a preacher, or one who had any pretense in that direc- 
tion, would come along I would thrust him into my 
pulpit and make him preach, because I felt that any- 
body could do better than I could. 

The church was filled that morning. It was a good- 
sized church, but on that day all the seats were filled. 
I had chosen for my text the words : 'Ye must be 
born again,' and during the course of my sermon I laid 
particular stress on the word 'must.' Mr. Lincoln 
came into the church after the services had commenced, 



and there being no vacant seats, chairs were put in the 
altar in front of the pulpit, and Mr. Lincoln and 
Governor French and wife sat in the altar during the 
entire services, Mr. Lincoln on my left and Governor 
French on my right, and I noticed that Mr. Lincoln 
appeared to be deeply interested in the sermon. A few 
days after that Sunday Mr. Lincoln called on me and 
informed me that he had been greatly impressed with 
my remarks on Sunday and that he had come to talk 
with me further on the matter. I invited him in, and 
my wife and I talked and prayed with him for hours. 
Now, I have seen many persons converted ; I have seen 
hundreds brought to Christ, and if ever a person was 
converted, Abraham Lincoln was converted that night 
in my house. His wife was a Presbyterian, but from 
remarks he made to me he could not accept Calvinism. 
He never joined my church, but I will always believe 
that since that night Abraham Lincoln lived and died 
a Christian gentleman." 

Here ends the narrative of Colonel Jacquess. Now 
compare that which my memory preserved for the 
past thirteen years and the Colonel's own printed ac- 
count, and the discrepancies are small. It is with 
pleasure I am able to confirm my memory by the words 
of the original narrator. It is with no small degree of 
pleasure that I am able to prove that Methodism had a 
hand in the making of the greatest American. Colonel 
James F. Jacquess has gone to his reward, but it is his 
honor to have been used by his Master to help in the 
spiritualization of the great man who piloted our na- 
tional destinies in a time of exceeding peril. It is an 
honor to him, and through him to the denomination of 
which he was a distinguished member. 

Baltimore, Md. 

(The Christian Advocate — November 11, 1909.) 



Appendix II 



PRECOCITY OF THE BOY LINCOLN. 
MANHOOD RELIGION. 

The fact that the death of Abraham Lincohi's 
mother occurred before he was quite ten years of age 
has apparently led certain writers, who failed to ap- 
preciate the precocity of the child and boy, to refer 
to his manhood memory of that mother and of that 
sad event, as "but a tender memory," and thus to 
ignore or minimize the influence of his mother upon 
his character or speak of that influence as compar- 
atively slight. To combat such views as entirely er- 
roneous was the main purpose of the Open Letter. 

Abraham Lincoln was born in the now glorified 
cabin in Kentucky, February 12, 1809. The family 
removed to Indiana in the fall of 1816 or 1817, when 
Abraham was 7^^ or 8^ years old. His mother, 
Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died in the Indiana cabin 
October 5, 1818, when Abraham was 9 years, 7 months 
and 21 days old. How much would an average boy 
of that age remember of such a sad event in his life, 
and how much of the loving mother's many precepts 
and teachings would be, by the very fact of that death, 
that sad mysterious leave-taking in the lonely wilder- 
ness, crystallized and fixed for ever in the mind and 
heart of the average boy? 

This question each reader can answer or attempt 
to answer for himself. 

Abraham Lincoln was, however, never an overage 
child, boy or man. He was always large of body, and 
precocious of mind and heart. When scarcely 7 years 
of age he was larger than most boys of 14, and ac- 
quired his height of 6 feet 4 while still in his teens, 
and as said by his boyhood playmate and chum, Austin 



Gollaher, he "was smarter than many older people, was 
always doing and saying something that astonished 
them, his solemn wit was refreshing to those who 
understood it, and his philosophy and wisdom fre- 
quently beyond belief." "The Boyhood of Abraham 
Lincoln," by J. Rogers Gore. 

Quoting again from Austin Gollaher, the writer 
of this admirable work, on page 21, says — "Big," he 
said, raising his hands above his head, "is not the 
right word to describe Abe either in mind or body. 
I'll tell you that boy towered ! He was nearly a head 
taller than I, yet I was three years older; and when 
it came to being smart he was way yonder ahead of 
me. God did it ; God made him big in body and mind 
so that he could work hard and never tire — so that he 
would not give up until the job was finished." 

On page 114, Mr. Gollaher is reported as quoting 
from John Hodgen, the miller, when Abraham was 
probably between 6 and / years of age, but then so 
large and strong that he weekly toted the family corn 
to the mill to be ground. "Abraham's mind is more 
than usual," Mr. Hodgen would say, "it is so full of 
astonishing things that at times it's uncanny. Why, 
I would rather listen to him talk than to half the men 
in the settlement. He always finds something new 
along the road and tells me about it every time he 
comes to the mill." 

John, the miller, presented Abe with a volume of 
Aesop's Fables, which his mother, Sarah Hodgen, 
read to the enrapt boy Abraham, who could soon re- 
peat many of them word for word. 

Every careful writer upon the life of Abraham 
Lincoln testifies to his early and insatiable thirst for 
knowledge, his serious, solemn, investigating mind, 
and serious thought, from earliest boyhood. He thus 

Forty-eight 



educated himself. 

Charles T. White, of the editorial stafif of The 
New York Tribune, a lover and student of Lincoln- 
iana, and the compiler of that inimitable book "Lin- 
coln the Comforter," writes — "Mr. Gore's book throws 
a veritable flood of Hght on the precocity of Lincoln 
for the year or two before he left Kentucky for 
Southern Indiana. The net result is that Lincoln at 
6 or 7 had a highly developed spirituality, as highly 
developed, I should say, as Whittier or Theodore 
Parker, or William Cullen Bryant, and much the same 
general character of temperament. Austin GoUaher, 
in Gore's book, says that he was the size and had the 
mental capacity of a lad of 14. As he didn't get it 
from his father, who was just 'average,' for that 
period, he got it from Nancy Hanks, who, according 
to Leland and Browne, was far, far above the average. 
Even with his fine start, he was specially raised up by 
God to save civilization. I like to think of him as a 
great gift from God. There is nothing in history to 
strengthen faith in the democracy of love like Lin- 
coln." 

Captain Gilbert J. Greene, from whom Mr. White 
quotes three narratives in "Lincoln the Comforter/' 
was a close friend of Lincoln, was the recipient of 
his kindness when a young man in 1850, and after- 
wards making his home in Springfield he became a 
close personal friend of Lincoln, and after the assas- 
sination related the three incidents which Mr. White 
has preserved in his booklet ; the one presents a vivid 
picture of the lawyer and young printer at the bedside 
of a dying woman, in a farm house near Springfield. 
A Will had been prepared and executed. The lawyer 
has said some words of comfort to the dying woman, 
and she asks him to read her a few verses out of the 
Bible. Without opening the book that was handed to 



him, he impressively repeated from memory the 
Twenty-third Psahn. and the first part of the 14th 
Chapter of John, and as her face lit up with joy and 
her spirit was about to take its flight, he recited with 
a tenderness and pathos that enthralled everyone in the 
room the "Rock of Ages," as she peacefully fell on 
sleep. ■ As the two journeyed back to Springfield, 
Lincoln after a long silence solemnly said to his young 
companion — "God and Eternity and Heaven were very 
near to me today." 

The narrative entitled "Lincoln's First Pet," relates a 
walk and talk by the two in the late "fifties," when 
Greene was -a journeyman printer in Springfield, and 
when the fame of Lincoln throughout the State was 
steadily rising. 

When seeing a family of little l)igs, Lincoln rc- 
nmrked, "I never see a pig that I do not think of my 
first pet when a boy of six years old, wh.ile we lived 
near Hodgenville, Kentucky." He went over to a 
neighboring farm and there was given to him a little 
pig just born, which he carried home, and he then 
relates how he trained it, how it followed him about 
through the woods, and grew and grew, and how final- 
ly it became a great porker, on whose back he rode, 
and soon there came a day of tragedy, how he tried 
to save his pet, then a great liog, and when he knew 
"there was no hope for my pig, I did not eat any 
breakfast, but started for the woods. I had not got- 
ten very far into the woods before I heard the pig 
squeal, and ran faster than ever to get away from the 
sound." "They could not get me to take any of the 
meat, neither tenderloin nor sausage nor souse, and 
even months after, when the cured ham came on the 
table, it made me sad and sick to look at it." "To this 
day, whenever I see a pig like the little fellows we 

Fifty 



have just met in the woods, it all comes back to me, 
my pet pig, our rambles in the woods, the scenes of 
my boyhood, the old home, and the dear ones there." 

This boy of 6 was the father of the man who, when 
riding with a group of lawyers upon the Circuit, 
could not pass the little bird that had fallen from the 
mother's nest, but braving the jeers of his companions, 
rode back, picked up the little fledgling, and carefully 
put it back in the nest ; and who, on another; occasion, 
requested the stage in which he was riding to stop 
and wait while he got out and assisted a little pig out 
of the mire by the roadside, and of the same man 
who endorsed the report of many a court martial of a 
delinquent soldier substantially, "It seems to me that 
this boy will do us more good above ground than be- 
low. Let him return to his regiment. A. Lincoln." 

That Lincoln was able to educate himself in spite 
of his surroundings, so that his speeches and writings 
were declared by experts to belong to the fine art of 
English prose, and to the best in literature, has always 
been the wonder of all students. Lincoln himself has 
not left in doubt the question as to zvhen that education 
began. In his conversation with Rev. Mr. Gulliver, 
as given on page 65 of "Abraham Lincoln, Illustrated/' 
in answer to the question, "What has your education 
been?" Mr. Lincoln replied: "Well, as to education, 
the newspapers are correct. I never went to school 
more than six months in my life. I can say this, — 
that, among my earliest recollections, I remember how, 
when a mere child, I used to get irritated when any- 
body talked to me in a way I could not understand. I 
don't think I ever got so angry at anything else in my 
life; but that always disturbed my temper, and has 
ever since. I can remember going to my little bedroom, 
after hearing the neighbors talk of an evening with 

Fifty-one 



my father, and spending no small part of the night 
walking up and down, and trying to make out what 
was the exact meaning of some of their, to me, dark 
sayings. 

I could not sleep, although I often tried to, when 
I got on such a hunt after an idea, until I had caught 
it ; and, when I thought I had got it, I was not satis- 
fied until I had repeated it over and over ; until I had 
put it in language plain enough, as I thought, for any 
boy I knew to comprehend. This was kind of passion 
with me, and it has stuck by me ; for I am never easy 
now, when I am handling a thought, till I have bounded 
it north, and bounded it south, and bounded it east, 
and bounded it west." 

We must repeat that with the evidence of the re- 
markable precocity of the child and boy who received 
the tender loving care and solicitous training of a 
Christian mother constantly during the first 9]^ years 
of his life, the character, religion and influence of 
that mother can not be ignored in any proper "Story 
of Lincoln's Spiritual Life and Convictions." 

MANHOOD RELIGION. 

Mr. Herndon, in his address in Springfield, De- 
cember 12, 1865, said of Mr. Lincoln — 

"Honesty was his great ])olar star." 

"He loved and idolized truth for its own sake." 

Dr. Holland says that the truthfulness and earnest- 
ness of his mature character was but being true to his 
Mother. 

That in his manhood religion he was true to his 
mother's faith and teaching, stands proven. Her 
prayers "have clung to me all my life." 



"The good thought that our God is a prayer-hearing 
God, sown into my young heart by my dear mother's 
hand, was in my mind when I said to you 'Go and 
pray, for God alone can save you'." 

"All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel 
mother." 

With Lincoln's honesty admitted, and abundantly 
proven, as it is, the genuineness, depth and sincerity 
of his manhood religion is overwhelmingly proven by 
his own writings and speeches. 

In addition to these honest, sincere expressions of 
his mind and heart, we have at least four striking 
scenes, each witnessed by or personally reported to a 
mature credible witness, each portraying clearly and 
with no dim or uncertain line the portrait of a twice 
born man : one in the late 40's, in the Methodist parson- 
age in Springfield, witnessed and reported by Col. 
Jaquess ; one at the bedside in the farm house in the 
50's, witnessed and reported by Captain Greene ; one 
in that locked room in the White House during the 
progress of the Battle of Gettysburg, when upon his 
knees as a second Tishbite, he "touched the trailing 
garments of .Power," and heard the still small voice 
of comfort, telling him "things would go all right at 
Gettysburg," related to and reported by Generals 
Sickles and Rusling; and the other the remarkable 
Pisgah interview in the White House in June, 1864, 
witnessed and reported by the Rev. Charles Chiniquy. 

Moreover, there is on record the testimony of a 
veritable cloud of unimpeachable witnesses, as to 
serious conversations with them, showing his firm re- 
ligious beliefs. Among them are Chittenden, Wilson, 
Arnold, Deming, Munsell, Speed, Fessenden, Whitney, 

Fifty-three 



Gilmore, Chiniqiiy, Gurley, Smith, Miner, Sunderland, 
Brooks, and others. What other eminent lawyer 
and politician, not accustomed to attend "class" reg- 
ularly, has left such abundant testimonies of his re- 
ligious experience? 

It had been more than 30 years since the two feeble 
attempts to question the firm adherence to his mother's 
faith had been overwhelmed, with the evidence of their 
falsity, when Dr. Barton's books appeared. 

"Beating the air" is spectacular self exertion, but 
when, in order to make the opportunity, the long buried 
ashes of campaign slanders are revamped and baseless 
false charges are repeated, and when out of print re- 
printed in detail, for the purpose of argument, how- 
ever brilliant, true lovers of Lincoln are liable to raise 
the question as to whether a worthy service has been 
thereby rendered to his memory? Good taste, of 
course, is another question, and must be answered in- 
dividually. 



Appendix No. Ill 



FATHER CHINIQUY AND MR. LINCOLN. 

Rev. Charles Chiniquy, referred to and quoted in 
Dr. Barton's book and in the foregoing Open Letter, 
was in early life a French Roman Catholic Priest in 
Montreal and Quebec, who earned the title of "The 
Apostle of Temperance of Canada." 

In 1851 he endorsed a project of establishing a col- 
ony of French speaking Catholics in the Mississippi 
Valley. He procured transfer to the Diocese of Chi- 
cago ; secured a large tract of land in Kankakee Coun- 
ty in Illinois and started his Mission Colony. 

The Colony was a success, but after over 500 fami- 
lies of French Catholics had settled about him, op- 
position began to develop. He was too independent, 
and persistent attempts to drive him away, or destroy 
his influence, were made. His chapel was burned to 
the ground, but his people were loyal to him, and it was 
rebuilt. 

Then began a long series of prosecutions in the 
Criminal Courts. He was twice acquitted, and then 
upon another charge a change of venue was taken and 
the case set down in Urbana, requiring him to take his 
witnesses a long distance at great expense. 

In his book — "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome" 
— he relates how he became acquainted with Abraham 
Lincoln. A man, unknown to him, met him at the 



door of the Court House at Kankakee, on November 
13, 1855, after the change of venue, and advised him to 
"try to secure the services of Abraham Lincohi." He 
replied that he had two lawyers now, but asked "Who 
is this Abraham Lincoln ? I never heard of that man 
before." The reply was, "Abraham Lincoln is the best 
lawyer and the most honest man we have in Illinois." 

He asked his lawyers, Messrs, Osgood & Padcock, 
if they would have any objections if he should ask 
the services of Abraham Lincoln to help them to de- 
fend him at Urbana. They both answered — "Oh, if 
you can secure the services of Abraham Lincoln, by 
all means do it. We know him well ; he is one of the 
best lawyers and most honest men we have in our 
State." 

He at once "telegraphed to Abraham Lincoln to ask 
him if he would defend my honor and my life, (though 
I was a stranger to him) at the next term at Urbana. 
About twenty minutes later I received the answer. 
'Yes, I will defend your honor and your life at the next 
term at Urbana. Abraham Lincoln.' My unknown 
friend then paid the operator, pressed my hand, and 
said, 'May God bless and help you, Father Chiniquy. 
Continue to fight fearlessly for truth and righteous- 
ness.' " 

At the trial at Urbana, Lincoln was for the de- 
fense, and it was after the first day of that trial that 
Lincoln said to Father Chiniquy, "The only way to be 
sure of a favorable verdict tomorrow is that Almighty 
God will take our part and show your innocence. Go 
to Him and pray, for He alone can save you," and 
Father Chiniquy adds — "From 11 P. M. to 3 in the 
morning I cried to God and raised my supplicating 
hands to His throne of mercy ; but I confess to my con- 

Fifty-six 



fusion, it seemed to me in certain moments that it was 
useless to pray and to cry, for though innocent, I was 
doomed to perish. I was in the hands of my enemies. 
My God had forsaken me. 

But God had not forsaken me. He had again 
heard my cry and was once more to show me His in- 
finite mercy. At 3 A. M. I heard three knocks on my 
door, and I quickly went to open it. Who was there? 
Abraham Lincoln, with a face beaming with joy. 

I could hardly believe my eyes. But I was not 
mistaken. It was my noble-hearted friend, the most 
honest lawyer of Illinois, one of the noblest men 
heaven has ever given to earth. It was Abraham Lin- 
coln, who had been given me as my Saviour." 

Mr. Lincoln told him to cheer up ; that he was saved ; 
that the Chicago extras that night at the close of the 
trial had announced that Father Chiniquy would cer- 
tainly be condemned in the morning; and that one of 
the papers had fallen into the hands of a friend of his, 
which led to the discovery of two women who were 
present and overheard the complaining witness promise 
to give 160 acres of land to his sister if she would ac- 
cuse him of the crime. 

As one of the women was ill, this friend took the 
other, a certain Miss Moffat, and by the first train 
reached Urbana at three o'clock in the morning, where 
they found Abraham Lincoln ready to hear her story ; 
and then hasten to cheer up his client, saying "Their 
diabolical plot is all known, and if they do not fly away 
before dawn of day they will surely be lynched. Bless 
the Lord, you are saved." 

By daylight the witnesses of the prosecution had 

Fifty-seven 



disappeared, and their attorney, appearing before the 
Court, said "Please the court, allow me to withdraw 
my prosecution against Mr. Chiniquy. I am now per- 
suaded that he is not guilty of the faults brought 
against him before this tribunal." 

"Abraham Lincoln, having accepted the reparation 
of my name, made a short but one of the most admir- 
able speeches I had ever heard." 

It was from the talk of Mr. Lincoln with Father 
Chiniquy, in the morning, that the statement as to his 
mother's teachings of faith and prayer occurred which 
was quoted on page L5 of the Open Letter. 

If ever a client loved and venerated his attorney, 
Father Chiniquy did Abraham Lincoln, and when 
he became President of the United States, this former 
client made three trips from Illinois to Washington to 
see his former attorney. 

(As Rev. Chiniquy 's book is out of print we but 
follow an illustrious example in giving in this ap- 
pendix the substance of the remarkable interview of 
June, 1864.) 

His first visit was in August, 1861, when he be- 
lieved that he had learned of a plot to assassinate Mr. 
Lincoln. Lincoln received him gladly, heard his story, 
but replied, "Man must not care where or when he will 
die, provided he dies at the post of honor and duty." 
and it was during this visit that Father Chiniquy re- 
ports that Lincoln offered him an honorable position 
with the United States Embassy in France, but he had 
replied that his conscience told him that he could not 
give up the preaching of the Gospel to his poor French- 
Canadian countrymen. 

"The President became very solemn, and replied. 
'You are right ; you are right. There is nothing so 

Fifty-eight 



great under Heaven as to be the Ambassador of 
Christ'." 

His second trip to Washington was in June, 1862, 
merely to congratulate his friend and former attorney 
upon the victory of the Monitor over the Merrimac, 
and the conquest of New Orleans, and he says "I 
wanted to unite my feeble voice with that of the whole 
country to tell him how I blessed God for that glorious 
success." 

"The third and last time I went to pay my re- 
spects to the doomed President, and to warn him 
against the impending dangers which I knew were 
threatening him, was on the morning of June 8, 1864, 
when he was absolutely besieged by people who wanted 
to see him. After a kind and warm shaking of hands, 
he said : 

"I am much pleased to see you again. But it is im- 
possible, today, to say anything more than this. To- 
morrow afternoon, I will receive the delegation of the 
deputies of all the loyal States, sent to officially an- 
nounce the desire of the country that I should remain 
the President four years more. I invite you to be 
present with them at that interesting meeting. You 
will see some of the most prominent men of our Re- 
public, and I will be glad to introduce you to them. 
You will not present yourself as a delegate of the peo- 
ple, but only as the guest of the President; and that 
there may be no trouble, I will give you this card, 
with a permit to enter with the delegation. But do not 
leave Washington before I see you again ; I have some 
important matters on which I want to know your 
mind." 

The next day it was my privilege to have the great- 
est honor ever received by me. The good President 
wanted me to stand at his right hand, when he received 

Fifty-nine 



the delegation, and hear the address presented by 
Governor Dennison, the President of the convention, 
to which he repHed in his own admirable simplicity 
and eloquence ; finishing by one of his most witty 
anecdotes, "I am reminded in this connection of a story 
of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion, 
wisely, 'that it was not best to swap horses when cross- 
ing a stream'." 

The next day he kindly took me with him in his car- 
riage, when visiting the 30,000 wounded soldiers picked 
up on the battlefields of the seven days' battle of the 
Wilderness, and the thirty days' battle around Rich- 
mond, where Grant was just breaking the backbone of 
the rebellion. On the way to and from the hospitals, 
I could not talk much. The noise of the carriage rap- 
idly drawn on the pavement was too great. Besides 
that, my soul was so much distressed, and my heart so 
much broken by the sight of the horrors of that frac- 
ticidal war, that my voice was as stifled." * * * 

"He invited me to go with him to his study, and 
said : 

"Though I am very busy, I must rest an hour with 
you. I am in need of that rest. My head is aching, I 
feel as crushed under the burden of afifairs which are 
on my shoulders. There are many important things 
about the plots of the Jesuits that I can learn only from 
you. Please wait just a moment, I have just received 
some dispatches from General Grant, to which I must 
give an answer. My secretary is waiting for me. I 
go to him. Please amuse yourself with those books 
during my short absence." 

Twenty-five minutes later the President had re- 
turned with his face flushed with joy. 

"Glorious news ! General Grant has again beaten 
Lee, and forced him to retreat towards Richmond, 

Sixty 



where he will have to surrender before long. Grant 
is a real hero. But let us come to the question I want 
to put to you. Have you read the letter of the Pope 
to Jeff Davis, and what do you think of it?" 

Then Father Chiniquy very earnestly set forth his 
fears of conspiracy to assassinate the President, and 
continues : 

"The President listened to my words with breath- 
less attention. He replied : * * * 

" 'You are not the first to warn me against the dan- 
gers of assassination. My ambassadors in Italy, 
France and England, as well as Professor Morse, have, 
many times, warned me against the plots of the mur- 
derers whom they have detected m those different 
countries. But I see no other safeguard against those 
murderers, but to be always ready to die, as Christ 
advises it. As we must all die sooner or later, it makes 
very little difference to me whether I die from a dagger 
plunged through the heart or from an inflammation of 
the lungs. Let me tell you that I have, lately, read a 
passage in the Old Testament which has made a pro- 
found, and, I hope, a salutary impression on me. Here 
is that passage.' 

"The President took his Bible, opened it at the third 
chapter of Deuteronomy, and read from the 22nd to 
the 28th verse. 

" '22. Ye shall not fear them ; for the Lord your 
God shall fight for you. 

" '23. And I besought the Lord at that time, say- 
ing: 

" '24. O Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy 
servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand ; for what 
God is there, in heaven or in earth, that can do ac- 
cording to thy words, and "according to thy might ! 

" '25. I pray thee, let me go over and see the good 



land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and 
Lebanon. 

" '26. But God was wroth with me for your sakes, 
and would not hear mc : and the Lord said unto me, 
let it suffice thee : speak no more unto me of this mat- 
ter: 

" '27. Get thee up unto the top of Pisgah, and lift 
up thine eyes westward and northward, and south- 
ward and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes : for 
thou shalt not go over this Jordan'." 

After the President had read these words with 
great solemnity, he added : 

"My Dear Father Chiniquy, let me tell you that I 
have read these strange and beautiful words several 
times, these last five or six weeks. The more I read 
them the more it seems to me that God had written 
them for me as well as for Moses. 

"Has he not taken me from my poor log cabin 
by the hand, as he did Moses in the reeds of the 
Nile, to put me at the head of the greatest and the 
most blessed of modern nations, just as he put that 
prophet at the head of the most blessed nation of 
ancient times? Has not God granted me a privilege, 
which was not granted to any living man, when I broke 
the fetters of 4,000,000 of men, and made them free ? 
Has not our God given me the most glorious victories 
over our enemies? Are not the armies of the Con- 
federacy so reduced to a handful of men, when com- 
pared to what they were two years ago ; that the day 
is fast approaching when they will have to surrender. 

"Now, I see the end of this terrible conflict, with 
the same joy of Moses, when at the end of his trying 
forty years in the wilderness ; and I pray my God to 
grant me to see the days of peace and untold pros- 
perity, which will follow this, cruel war, as Moses 

Sixty-two 



asked God to see the other side of Jordan and enter 
the Promised Land. But, do you know that I hear in 
my soul, as the voice of God, giving me the rebuke 
which was given to Moses? 

"Yes ! every time that my soul goes to God to ask 
the favor of seeing the other side of Jordan, and eat- 
ing the fruits of that peace, after which I am longing 
with such an unspeakable desire, do you know that 
there is a still but solemn voice, which tells me that 1 
will see those things only from a long distance, and 
that I will be among the dead, when the nation, which 
God granted me to lead through those awful trials, will 
cross the Jordan, and dwell in that Land of Promise, 
where peace, industry, happiness and liberty will make 
everyone happy, and why so? Because he has already 
given me favors which he never gave, I dare say, to 
any man in these latter days. 

"Why did God Almighty refuse to Moses the favor 
of crossing the Jordan, and entering the Promised 
Land. It was on account of his own nation's sins ! 
That law of divine retribution and justice, by v/hich 
one must suffer for another, is surely a terrible 
mystery. But it is a fact which no man who has any 
intelligence and knowledge can deny. Moses, who 
knew that law, though he probably did not understand 
it better tfean we "do, calmly says to his people: 'God 
was wroth with me for your sakes.' 

"But, though we do not understand that mysterious 
and terrible law, we find it written in letters of tears 
and blood wherever we go. We do not read a single 
page of history, without finding undeniable traces of 
its existence. 

"Where is the mother who has not shed tears and 
suffered real tortures, for her children's sake? 

"Who is the good king, the worthy emperor, the 

Sixty-three 



gifted chieftain, who have not suflfered unspeakable 
mental agonies, or even death, for their people's sake? 

"Is not our Christian religion the highest ex- 
pression of the wisdom, mercy and love of God ! But 
what is Christianity if not the very incarnation of that 
eternal law of divine justice in our humanity? 

"When I look on Moses, alone, silently dying on 
the Mount Pisgah, I see that law, in one of its most 
sublime human manifestations, and I am filled with 
admiration and awe. 

"But when I consider that law of justice, and ex- 
piation in the death of the Just, the divine Son of 
Mary, on the mountain of Calvary, I remain mute in 
my adoration. The spectacle of the crucified one which 
is before my eyes, is more than sublime, it is divine ! 
Moses died for his people's sake, but Christ died for 
the whole world's sake ! Both died to fulfill the same 
eternal law of the divine justice, though in a different 
measure. 

"Now, would it not be the greatest of honors and 
privileges bestowed upon me, if God, in his infinite 
love, mercy and wisdom, would put me between his 
faithful servant, Moses, and his eternal Son, Jesus, 
that I might die as they did, for my nation's sake! 

"My God alone knows what I have already suf- 
fered for my dear country's sake. But my fear is 
that the justice of God is not yet paid: When I look 
upon the rivers of tears and blood drawn by the lashes 
of the merciless masters from the veins of the very 
heart of those millions of defenceless slaves, these two 
hundred years : When I remember the agonies, the 
cries, the unspeakable tortures of those unfortunate 
people to which I have, to some extent, connived with 
so many others, a part of my life, I fear that we are 

Sixty-four 



still far from the complete expiation. For the judg- 
ments of God are true and righteous." * * * 

"But just as the Lord heard no murmur from the 
lips of Moses, when he told him that he had to die, 
before crossing the Jordan, for the sins of his people, 
so I hope and pray that he will hear no murmur from 
me when I fall for my nation's sake. 

"The only two favors I ask of the Lord, are, first, 
that I may die for the sacred cause in which I am en- 
gaged, and when I am the standard-bearer of the 
rights and liberties of my country. 

"The second favor I ask from God, is that my dear 
son, Robert, when I am gone, will be one of those who 
lift up that flag of Liberty which will cover my tomb, 
and carry it with honor and fidelity, to the end of his 
life, as his father did, surrounded by the millions who 
will be called with him to fight and die for the defence 
and honor of our country." 

Never had I heard such sublime words. Never had 
I seen a human face so solemn and so prophet-like 
as the face of the President, when uttering these 
things. Every sentence had come to me as a hymn 
from heaven, reverberated by the echoes of the moun- 
tains of Pisgah and Calvary. I was beside myself. 
Bathed in tears, I tried to say something, but I could 
not utter a word. 

I knew the hour to leave had come, I asked from 
the President permission to fall on my knees, and pray 
with him that his life might be spared; and he knelt 
with me. But I prayed more with my tears and sobs 
than with my words. 

Then I pressed his hand on my lips and bathed it 
with my tears, and with a heart filled with an unspeak- 
able desolation, I bade him Adieu! It was for the 
last time !" 

Sixtv-five 



Appendix IV. 



LINCOLN'S ENDORSEMENT OF COLONEL 
JAQUESS. 

J. R. Gilmore, in the article, "A Suppressed Chapter 
of History," published in the Atlantic Monthly of 
April, 1887, page 435, under his usual pen name, 
Edmund Kirke ; reports a conference with Mr, Lin- 
coln, in connection with Colonel Jaquess' first appli- 
cation for a furlough and permission to go single- 
handed into the rebel lines and advocate peace. 

From 8:00 o'clock until after midnight, Mr. Gil- 
more discussed the questions involved. He had come 
from General Rosecrans headquarters in Tennessee, 
with letters from both General Rosecrans and Colonel 
Jaquess, and Mr. Gilmore asked Lincoln to give Col- 
onel Jaquess some manner of official standing, if the 
mission was to be undertaken. 

This Lincoln said he could not do; that while he 
was anxious that the trip should be made, he could 
not acknowledge the rebel government, etc., and in 
this talk, as reported by Mr. Gilmore, President Lin- 
coln not only gave a most wonderful endorsement of 
the character of Colonel Jaquess, but disclosed his own 
personal firm belief in an over-ruling, guiding Prov- 
idence, the responsibility of mankind, and the infallible 
righteousness of the judgments of the Lord, which 
beliefs were afterwards enshrined in that classic, "The 
Second Inaugural." 

(As Dr. Barton failed to include any item of this 
interview in his book which he alleged to set forth in 



their full essential content, "all the available evidence 
concerning the religious faith of Abraham Lincoln" 
we have no apology for including this as an appendix.) 

In reply to Mr. Gilmore's urgings, Mr. Lincoln said 
that the reasons that he could not endorse Colonel 
Jaquess' undertaking officially was not only that it 
might be construed into a g^^o^Z-acknowledgment of the 
rebel government, but 

"Partly its effect on the North. The Copperheads 
would be sure to say I had shown the white feather, 
and resorted to back-door diplomacy to get out of a 
bad scrape. This, whether true or not, would dis- 
courage loyal people. You see, I don't want to be like 
the dog that crossed the brook with a piece of meat in 
his mouth, and dropped it to catch its enlarged shadow 
in the water. I want peace ; I want to stop this ter- 
rible waste of life and property ; and I knozv Jaquess 
zvell, and see that, working in the way he proposes, he 
may be able to bring influences to bear upon Davis that 
he cannot well resist, and thus pave the way for an 
honorable settlement ; but I can't afford to discourage 
our friends and encourage our enemies, and so, per- 
haps, make it more difficult to save the Union." 

"I appreciate your position, sir," I said ; "but what 
weight will Jaquess have, if he goes without some, at 
least implied, authority from you ?" 

"He may have much," he replied, drawing from his 
side pocket the letter to him from Jaquess, and glanc- 
ing over it. "He proposes here to speak to them in 
the name of the Lord, and he says he feels God's hand 
is in it, and He has laid the duty upon him. Now, if 
he feels that he has that kind of authority, he can't fail 
to affect the element on which he expects to operate. 

Sixty-seven 



and that Methodist element is very powerful at the 
South." 

"Why sir !" I remarked. "I hesitated about deliver- 
ing you that letter. I feared you would think Jaquess 
fanatical." 

"If you had not delivered it," he answered, "I 
would not let him go. Such talk in you or me might 
sound fanatical ; but in Jaquess it is simply natural 
and sincere. And I am not at all sure he isn't right. 
God selects his own instruments, and sometimes they 
are queer ones ; for instance, He chose me to steer the 
ship through a great crisis." 

I was glad to see him relapsing into his usual 
badinage, but, desiring to keep him to the subject, I 
said : "Then, sir, you decide to give Jaquess the fur- 
lough, but refuse to grant him an interview. He will 
need to know your views about peace. What shall I 
write him are the terms you will grant the Rebels ?" 

"Don't write him at all — write to Rosecrans. I've 
been thinking what had better be said. ^ My views are 
peace on any terms consistent with the abolition of 
slavery and the restoration of the Union. Is not that 
enough to say to Jaquess? He can do no more than 
open the door for further negotiations, which would 
have to be conducted with me here, in a regular way. 
Let Rosecrans tell him that we shall be liberal on col- 
lateral points ; that the country will do everything for 
safety, nothing for revenge." 

"Do you mean, sir," I asked, "that as soon as the 
Rebels lay down their arms you will grant a general 
amnesty ?" 

"I do ; and I will say to you that, individually, I 
should be disposed to make compensation for the 
slaves ; but I doubt if my cabinet or the country would 
favor that. What do you think public opinion would 

Sixty-eight 



be about it? Nicolay tells me you have recently lec- 
tured all over the North ; you must have heard people 
talk." 

"I have, sir, almost everywhere ; and my opinion is 
that not one voter in ten would pay the South a dollar. 
Still, I have observed very little hatred or bitterness 
in any quarter." 

"No," he answered, "the feeling is against slavery, 
not against the South. The war has educated our peo- 
ple into abolition, and they now deny that slaves can 
be property. But there are two sides to that question : 
one is ours, the other the Southern side ; and those peo- 
ple are just as honest and conscientious in their opinion 
as we are in ours. They think they have a moral and 
legal right to their slaves, and until very recently the 
North has been of the same opinion ; for two hundred 
^ears the whole country has admitted it, and regarded 
and treated the slaves as property. Now, does the 
mere fact that the country has come suddenly to a con- 
trary opinion give it the right to take the slaves from 
their owners without compensation? The blacks must 
be freed. Slavery is the bone we are fighting over. It 
must be got out of the way, to give us permanent 
peace ; and if we have to fight this war till the South is 
subjugated, then I think we shall be justified in freeing 
the slaves without compensation. But in any settle- 
ment arrived at before they force things to that ex- 
tremity, is it not right and fair that we should make 
payment for the slaves ?" 

"If I were a slaveholder," I answered, "I should 
probably say that it was : but you, sir, have to deal 
with things as they are, and I think that if you were 
to sound public sentiment at the North you would find 
it utterly opposed to any compromise with the Soutli. 

Sixty-nine 



A vast majority would regard any compensation as a 
price paid for peace, and not for the slaves." 

"So I think," he said, "and therefore I fear we can 
come to no adjustment. "/ fear the war must go on 
till North and South have both drunk of the cup to the 
very dregs, — till both have worked out in pain, and 
grief, and bitter humiliation the sin of two hundred 
years. It has seemed to me that God so wills it ; and 
the first gleam I have had of a hope to the contrary 
is in this letter of Jaqucss. This thing, irregular as it 
is, may mean that the Higher Powers are about to take 
a hand in this business, and bring about a settlement. 
I know if I were to say this out loud, nine men in ten 
would think I had gone crazy. But — you are a think- 
ing man — just consider it. Here is a man, cool, delib- 
erate, God-fearing, of exceptional sagacity and zvorldly 
wisdom, who undertakes a project that strikes you and 
me as utterly chimerical : he attempts to bring about, 
single-handed and on his own hook, a peace between 
two great sections. Moreover, he gets it into his head 
that God has laid this work upon him, and he is will- 
ing to stake his life upon that conviction. The im- 
pulse upon him is overpowering, as it was upon Luther, 
when he said, 'God help me. I can do no otherwise.' 
Now, how do you account for this ? What prodticcs 
this feeling in him?" 

"An easy answer would be to say that Jaquess is a 
fanatic." 

"But," he replied, "he is very far from being a 
fanatic. He is remarkably level-headed ; I never knezv 
a man more so. Can you account for it except on his 
own supposition, that God is in it? And, if that is so, 
something will come out of it; perhaps not what 
Jaquess expects, but what will be of service to the right. 

Seventy 



So, though there is risk about it, I shall let him go." 

"There certainly, sir, is risk to Jaquess. He will 
go without a safe-conduct, and so will be technically a 
spy. The Rebel leaders may choose to regard him in 
that light. If they don't like his terms of peace, they 
may think that the easiest way to be rid of the sub- 
ject. In that event, couldn't you in some way inter- 
fere to protect him ?" 

"I don't see how I could," he replied, "without ap- 
pearing to have a hand in the business. And if Jaquess 
has his duties, I have mine. What you suggest re- 
minds me of a man out West, who was not over-pious, 
but rich, and built a church for the poor people of his 
neighborhood. When the church was finished, the peo- 
ple took it into their heads that it needed a lightning- 
rod, and they went to the rich man, and asked him for 
money to help pay for it. 'Money for a lightning-rod !' 
he said. 'Not a red cent! If the Lord wants to thunder 
down his own house, let him thunder it down, and be 
d d'." 

"So," I said, laughing, "you propose to let the Lord 
take care of Jaquess?" 

"I do," he answered. "His evident sincerity will 
protect him. I have no fear for him whatever. But I 
shall be anxious to hear of him, and I wish you would 
send me the first word you get. In writing to Rose- 
crans, omit what I have said about paying for the 
slaves. The time hiis not come to talk about that. Let 
him say what he thinks best to Colonel Jaquess ; but 
the colonel must not understand he has the terms from 
me. We want peace, but we can make no overtures to 
the Rebels. They already know that the country would 
welcome them back, and treat them generously and 
magnanimously." 

"To avoid any possibility of misunderstanding, 

Seventy-one 



sir," I remarked, "would it not be well for you to write 
to Rosecrans also ?" 

"Perhaps it would," he answered. "I think I will." 

It was near midnight when I rose to go. As I did 
so, he said, "Don't go yet. I shall stay here until I 
get something from Grant." 

I resumed my seat, and half an hour later the dis- 
patch came in. Then the worn, weary man took my 
hand, saying, "Good-bye. God bless you," and I went 
to my quarters. 

Thus, Col. Jaquess, single-handed and alone, in July, 
1863, made his first attempt to carry out his mission 
of peace. Wearing his field uniform as a Colonel in 
the Union Army, he boldly walked into the lines of 
the Confederate forces, was courteously treated by sol- 
diers and officers, including General Longstreet, ex- 
horted the southern Methodists who hailed him as an 
ambassador of God, and urged him strongly not to 
cease his elTorts until the end was accomplished ; but 
Jefferson Davis denied him a personal interview un- 
less he could speak on behalf of President Lincoln, so 
the Colonel returned to urge the President to permit 
him to use his name. 

From Baltimore, where he arrived safely without 
the smell of fire having passed upon his garments, he 
sent a request to the President to be permitted to make 
a report in person, but the letter was not delivered to 
Lincoln, for which afterwards he expressed sincere 
regret. 

After waiting two weeks for an answer. Col. Jaquess 
hastened to his post of duty with the Army on the 
Tennessee, and soon after led his regiment in the bat- 
tles about Chattanooga, but he never for a moment 

Seventy-two 



forgot or abandoned his mission. It was the next sum- 
mer, 1864, that he renewed his request, through Mr. 
Gilmore, and to which we referred in the Open Letter. 

It was then in July, 1864, that the two, Jaquess and 
Gilmore, successfully passed through the lines to Rich- 
mond, had a personal interview with Davis and 
Benjamin, and safely returned to publish Davis' de- 
claration of — War or Disunion — which dissolved the 
peace party of the North, and triumphantly re-elected 
Lincoln president. 

Dr. Chapman, in his book — "Latest Light on Abra- 
ham Lincoln and War-Time Memories" — devotes the 
third chapter, of 57 pages, to "The Jaquess-Gilmore 
Mission." This we had not seen when writing the 
Open Letter, but had, by independent research, ob- 
tained the facts from records in the possession of Miss 
Fannie M. Jaquess, the niece of Col. Jaquess. 

Dr. Chapman, who had a long personal acquaintance 
with both Mr. Lincoln and Dr. Jaquess, opens his 
Chapter as follows : 

III. 

The Jaquess-Gilmore Mission. 

To the re-election of Abraham Lincoln as Pres- 
ident, and the final overthrow of the Rebellion, 
the Jaquess-Gilmore Embassy of 1863-64 con- 
tributed more largely than did any other single 
effort of individuals, or any one achievement or 
act of the Government during that period. 

Having been an active participant in the strug- 
gles of that Presidential campaign and having 
given the history of that mission careful considera- 
tion for more than half a century, I have no 
hesitation in saying that the disclosures secured by 
that embassy and widely published at the crisis 
hour of that contest, turned the tide of battle and 

Seventy-three 



saved the nation from the ruinous defeat of Pres- 
ident Lincohi and the dissolution of the Union. 

The story of that unique mission and of its de- 
cisive influence in the Presidential campaign is 
here told with painstaking fidelity and, to be right- 
fully appreciated, it should be read in its entirety. 
The hero of that embassy. 

Colonel James F. Jaquess, 

of the 73rd Illinois Volunteers, was a rare man. 
He lived with his head above the clouds while his 
feet were on solid ground ; he lived in the eternal 
while he wrought with tremendous force in the 
activities of earth. He was a prominent minister 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a dis- 
tinguished college president before the Rebellion, 
and in the pulpit he was a Boanerges, a "Son of 
Thunder," and his gospel messages were like oral 
proclamations by Jehovah. He seemed to live in 
constant fellowship with the Most High, and to 
be an utter stranger to worldly considerations and 
motives while obeying the commands of God. He 
was as loving and gentle as a devoted mother in 
dealing with the weak and erring, but he would 
dash with fearless fury into battle as if hurled by 
an invisible catapult against the forces of un- 
righteousness. To him the entreaties of the gos- 
pel, the denunciations of the law, and the violence 
of war, were alike the agencies of God in the 
furtherance of His cause. 

President Lincoln had for more than twenty- 
five years known Colonel Jaquess as a very suc- 
cessful minister of the gospel, and when in May, 
1863, he first learned of the proposed Embassy of 
Peace, he said : 'T know Jaquess well. He is re- 
markably level-headed. I never knew a man more 
so." He "is cool, deliberate, God-fearing, of ex- 
ceptional sagacity and worldly wisdom." 

Then follows the Gilmore interviews and accounts 
of the Missions. 



Dr. Barton assumes to criticize Dr. Chapman for in- 
cluding Col. Jaquess' statement of 1897, of the con- 
version of Abraham Lincoln in May, 1847, "with full 
confidence in the truth thereof." 

Dr. Chapman does more than this, on pages 395 
to 400 he confirms Dr. Jaquess' statements with 
arguments that have not been answered by Dr. Barton. 
Although he had not had the privilege of teaching 
school in similar environment during the 80's, he knew 
both the parties well and familiarly. He was the "Boy 
Orator of the Wide-Awakes," and made a hundred 
campaign speeches for Lincoln in 1860 at the time of 
his first election ; retained his acquaintance and friend- 
ship during the first four year term, and made many 
stump speeches during the campaign of 1864 ; lived in 
Washington throughout the v/ar, and had unusual 
facilities for knowing whereof he wrote, and on the 
question of Lincoln's conversion in the Methodist 
Parsonage in Springfield, he says, among other things — 

"Mr. Lincoln's subsequent period of doubt con- 
cerning religious matters was strictly normal, and 
does not to any degree discredit the account of 
the declaration of his acceptance of Christ during 
the interview in the Jaquess' home. As elsewhere 
stated, people of Mr. Lincoln's temperament and 
mental make-up usually come into a large and sat- 
isfying faith by passing through a period of doubt. 
Therefore, instead of discrediting the Jaquess' 
story, Mr. Lincoln's later season of doubt con- 
firms the account of that event in his life and bears 
witness to his surrender to Christ, as stated by 
Colonel Jaquess, and to the sincerity of subsequent 
efforts to keep the covenant he made at the time 
of that surrender. That surrender of his will and 
heart naturally called for the approval of his rea- 
son and led to investigation of Christian evidences 
which followed, and which was so honest and thor- 



ough as to seem to be unsettling ; but which, in 
fact, was the process by which a strongly in- 
tellectual nature reached settled and satisfactory 
convictions." 

"The prolonged silence of those who knew of 
this event in Mr. Lincoln's life is quite under- 
standable and does not justify any doubt of the 
story itself. It was like Mr. Lincoln to make no 
mention of this event to any person ; and it was 
just like Dr. Jaquess to regard the affair as con- 
fidential, and to leave the question of publicity at 
the time wholly with Mr. Lincoln. Some preachers 
would have proclaimed the event from the house- 
top, but Mr. Lincoln never would have sought such 
an interview with a minister of that caliber aj-'d 
character." 

"There is every reason for giving this remark- 
able story unquestionable credence." 

"It is not at variance with any of Mr. Lincoln's 
subsequent declarations." 

We could have added nothing to these statements of 
Dr. Chapman, who knew both of the parties in the 
sixties and thereafter was an eminent minister of the 
Presbyterian Church, had they been before us when 
writing the Open Letter. 



[Dr. Chapman states that in July, 1862, in addition 
to the carriage talk with two of his Cabinet, Mr. 
Lincoln showed the original draft of the Emancipation 
Proclamation to the Vice President and Dr. Gurley. 
The printed extract from Dr. Gurley 's diary, however, 
relates only to the final draft in December, 1862. The 
sentence in the Open Letter relating to Bishop Simpson 
should nevertheless, be amended by deleting the words 
"the only" ; not otherwise.] 



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